On September 6th a judge ruled that Target can be sued for having a website that is NOT ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant. The lawsuit was filed in February by a blind UC Berkley student.

For several years now an organization called "Watchfire" has been trying to raise awareness of ADA compliance as it relates to the internet. Yes, even websites must be ADA compliant. Initially web development companies could run their sites through "Bobby" to determine what roadblocks, if any, a vision impaired person would encounter and suggest changes to make the site compliant and accessible to the vision impaired.

In addition to ADA compliance, Watchfire sells a product to reduce potential risk due to unsecured data or privacy.

What does compliance entail? Here are just a few of the most commonly encountered issues: low constrast between text and background (visually impaired need high contrast and different contrast variations for colorblindness); small fonts that are too small to read; images that do not have alternative titles; navigation buried at the end of the text or bottom of the page; inability to use the tab button (the visually impaired have a hard time using a mouse).

The outcome of the Target case will have a large impact on all the other major (and minor) companies who have websites. It's time to check your sites for compliance and be ahead of the game.

If you need help - contact your webmaster (or me).

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