Target was well… the target of a recent lawsuit about whether or not they should be forced to make their site visually impaired-friendly. The Judge said yes, so now Target may be attacked by a class action suit because apparently not letting disabled users use your site somehow causes hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage. This ruling could possibly become a national thing too, because of the Americans With Disabilities Act.
What’s next? Are they going to sue companies that make roller coasters because it is difficult for someone without legs to use them? Am I going to get sued because some tool on this site doesn’t work well with accessibility software? Are car manufacturers going to get sued because a blind person can’t drive their vehicles?
Actually here is a good point: Google owns YouTube. Google is in California. What will this ruling mean for them? I say give it a few months before someone sues them for not providing transcripts for the videos on there. You know, not being able to access YouTube and view videos of guys getting hit in the crotch with golf clubs really causes emotional duress and causes millions of dollars worth of damage. 
Like I said, give it a few months. Someone will sue Google over that.
And just so you guys don’t think I am an anti-disabled user, I’m not. I think everyone should be able to use the Internet, however, with current technology this would definitely put an undue burden on website owners if they run sites with lots of javascript, flash media, videos, etc.
Maybe I’m just overreacting and this isn’t a big deal - but the fact Judges have been forcing companies to do more and more scares the crap out of me. Especially if the rulings are vague like this one.
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October 21st, 2007 at 1:09 am
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