Last year, the National Federation for the Blind (headquartered in beautiful Baltimore, MD) sued Target Stores because their website was not fully compatible with "screen readers" used by the blind and thus violated the American with Disabilities Act.
This week, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals-- which is more representative of the cantina in Star Wars than American jurisprudence-- certified the case as a class action and allowed it to move forward.
The blind are rising, and it isn't a good thing...
The main premise in the suit is that there are certain things you can do on the Target site that you can't do in the stores, so by not serving the vision-impaired community, they are depriving them of access guaranteed under the American With Disabilities Act.
There are a number of major problems with their argument.
First, the American with Disabilities Act specifically only covers facilities. The Web is not a facility, it is virtual. Don't believe me?
U.S. District Judge Patricia Seitz said the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) applies only to physical spaces, such as restaurants and movie theaters, and not to the Internet.
"To expand the ADA to cover 'virtual' spaces would be to create new rights without well-defined standards," Seitz wrote in a 12-page opinion dismissing the case. "The plain and unambiguous language of the statute and relevant regulations does not include Internet Web sites."
That was from a 2002 case against Southwest Airlines. You can read Judge Seitz' opinion here with news coverage here.
But beyond the legal stupidity of the Target case, there is a technical issue.
The current Web standards aren't conducive to the technology. Period. I know, because I am a programmer, and I do this for a living. Screen readers-- like JAWS -- are crude kluges that attempt to bridge the gap, but do it poorly. Moreover, the direction the web is moving in is to be more visual (think YouTube), more interactive (think FaceBook or MySpace) and more reactive (think all of these combined). Simply put, the World Wide Web is a VISUAL MEDIUM. As the web standards are currently applied by the major browser developers, the major development tool creators, and the standards body (W3C), it is nearly impossible to create a site that is accessibility-friendly AND works in all major browsers AND is still compelling for the sighted.
So why did NFB go after Target?
I think there are two plausible reasons:
1) Fundraising. They need money. They just built a new HQ, and they have a lot of programs running, and they need to raise money. Pure and simple. Create a controversy, raise money, and keep going. Yes, I know this is cynical, but it is the way the world works. For the same reason Elizabeth Edwards goes and picks fights with the much smarter Ann Coulter, the NFB picked a fight with Target.
2) They are an easy target. (No pun intended). They can sue America's second largest retailer, and the threat of bad publicity will be enough to force a settlement. Trying to sue Microsoft, IBM, Mozilla, Opera, Apple, and the W3C -- plus the hundreds of thousands of agencies and programmers that use their tools -- would be nigh impossible, and wouldn't get them nearly as much money.
Now, why do I think this?
Well, now, we know that the blind are teeing up on the major automotive manufacturers that produce hybrids. This is perhaps THE MOST CYNICAL fundraising approach I have ever seen. Like a rotten parasite, the NFB are attaching themselves to the "go green" movement and now attacking hybrids as being "too quiet".
According to WBAL.com, the NFB are now complaining that hybrids are too quiet, and the blind cannot hear them as a result. How long before the NFB goes after Toyota, Honda, GM, Chrysler, and Ford?
Chris Danielson has no scientific evidence of the fact-- nor does he possess any statistics on the number of pedestrian fatalities because of quiet cars-- but apparently its a BIG PROBLEM that the GOVERNMENT must step in and solve RIGHT NOW.
Yes, we must make cars LOUDER.
Brings a whole new meaning to the old motorcycle campaign "Loud pipes save lives!"
Meanwhile, the blind are rising... and the courts are full of the hot air.