Is Your Web Site Handicap-Accessible?

Making online access easy use for blind and other disabled users is gaining attention because of class actions against companies like Target

by Karen E. Klein

Amber Grant, 18, eats, sleeps, and breathes the Internet, according to her father, Garry Grant, CEO of Carlsbad (Calif.)-based technology outfit SEO Inc.. The company, which has 65 employees, often calls on Amber to use her prodigious Web skills to help with a vexing problem: checking to see whether its clients' Web sites are accessible to the blind.

"I give her tasks to go onto clients' Web sites, find a particular product, select it, purchase it, and get through checkout securely. If it takes way too long, or it's difficult or impossible, I know we need to do some work," says Garry Grant, whose daughter has been blind since birth. Amber is able to navigate the Internet using a "screen reader." This is software designed for individuals who are blind, dyslexic, or have low vision. The software resides on the user's PC and reads the text on the screen out loud, using braille-enabled keyboard commands rather than a mouse.

But changes to many Web sites over the last half-dozen years can stymie screen-reading software and make Web navigation difficult for the blind. Similar problems exist for the hard of hearing, who need captioning for training videos and other visual and auditory content posted online, and for people with limited dexterity or no ability to manually manipulate a keyboard. Flash animation, photos, videos, security systems, and spam blockers unwittingly make Web sites difficult or impossible for the disabled to use.

Key Class Action Pending in California

While the Internet has opened up tremendous possibilities for communication and convenience for those with sight, hearing, or mobility impairments, it can also be very frustrating for them if Web sites are not accessible, says Cynthia Waddell, executive director of the nonprofit International Center for Disability Resources on the Internet, headquartered in Raleigh, N.C. "People have been stripping accessibility out without realizing what they're doing," she says.

But the awareness that Web sites must be accessible, for both legal and practical reasons, is likely to grow over the next several years. One reason is a class action against Target (TGT) currently working its way through the California courts that was filed in 2006 in Alameda County by the National Federation of the Blind. It alleges that Target failed and refused to make its Web site accessible to the blind, violating the Americans with Disabilities Act as well as two California civil rights statutes that concern disabled persons. This fall a federal district court judge certified the case for class-action status and ruled that California law requires Target.com to be accessible for the disabled.

While similar litigation has been brought against other large corporations over the last decade, most of the cases have resulted in private settlements, says Waddell, a Dublin (Calif.)-based lawyer and author who is an international expert on assuring disability access both online and in building codes. The federal access standards for electronic and information technology, often referred to as Section 508 of the federal Rehabilitation Act, requires that all federal Web sites must be handicapped-accessible, she says. That applies to private-sector firms that are doing business with the federal government.

Patchwork of State Regulations

For other private corporations and small businesses online, however, the rules are not quite so clear and court rulings have not been consistent. "The courts are having difficulty determining whether or not the Internet is 'a place of public accommodation' under Title 3 of the ADA," Waddell says, and the states have passed a patchwork of laws that do not always provide clear guidelines for Internet companies. The result is that many business owners are not aware their Web sites should be disabled-friendly.