The blind must be able to view your webpage
December, 2008
A recent decision by the Northern District of California indicates that online retailers with "brick and mortar" stores may be required to make their websites "visible" to the blind.
Retailers, wholesalers, and manufacturers that sell products both online and in traditional brick and mortar stores may be liable to blind persons if their websites are not compatible with screen-reading software, or have other similar deficiencies. The Northern District of California recently refused to dismiss a case brought by the National Federation for the Blind against Target Corporation, claiming that Target's website violates the ADA because it is virtually inaccessible to blind people.
The Decision
In early 2006, the National Federation for the Blind ("NFB") filed a class action lawsuit against Target Corporation, claiming that Target.com β Target's informational and e-commerce website β was not accessible to blind persons, in violation of the ADA, and California's Unruh Civil Rights Act and Disabled Persons Act. National Federation for the Blind v. Target Corp., 452 F.Supp.2d 946, 949-50 (N.D.C.A. 2006). Target moved to dismiss the claims, arguing that the ADA, Unruh Act, and DPA only protected disabled persons' access to physical spaces, and Target.com is not a physical space.
The court denied Target's motion and, focusing on the policy behind the ADA, explained that Target's website was a "service, privilege, or advantage" of Target's physical retail stores, and that the ADA applied to services of a place of public accommodation, not just services in a place of public accommodation. The court ruled that the ADA could apply to those portions of Target's website that affect the full and equal enjoyment of goods and services offered in Target stores, reasoning that Target has physical retail locations, and portions of its website are a mere extension of its physical retail stores.
Ultimately, Target settled the dispute for $6,000,000, plus six-figure "monitoring and training fees," and attorneys' fees and costs.
The Scope of the Decision
The Target decision does not affect every company that has a website, but it may affect those companies that sell products at both brick and mortar stores and on e-commerce websites. It is unclear whether a warehouse, merchant wholesaler, or middleman with an e-commerce website - but without a physical location accessible to the public - would have to be ADA compliant.
Even if a company sells products both online and out of a brick and mortar store, it appears the only portions of the website that may have to be ADA compliant are those that affect "the full and equal enjoyment of goods and services offered in [the company's] stores." Those portions of the website that "offer information and services unconnected to [the company's] stores, which do not affect the enjoyment of goods and services offered in [the company's] stores," are exempt from ADA regulation.
Tips That May be Helpful in Avoiding Website-Related ADA Claims
According to the NFB, in order for a website to be "Non-visually Accessible," and therefore ADA compliant, the website must be coded so that screen access software can enable a blind user to, among other things:
- Access information in narratives, databases, forms, charts, maps, and essential information conveyed via graphical presentations without visual assistance;
- Complete transactions that have been identified as primary to the application such as, but not limited to: buying merchandise, completing forms, registering for activities, downloading information, communicating with others, and participating in online educational programs;
- Understand and extract meaningful information from charts, tables, links, edit boxes, check boxes, menus, pictures, graphics, and other material portions of the website; and
- Increase or eliminate time requirements for tasks that must be completed within a specific time interval.