RE: website sued for not being blind-acsessable

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RE: website sued for not being blind-acsessable - 10/23/2007 1:59:09 PM

ownedgirlie

Posts: 9184
Joined: 2/5/2006
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quote:

ORIGINAL: youngsubgeoff

honestly, we're way too health concerned in this society. Granted, we should take care of ourseves, but things have gone overboard. Heres the thing: one day, may not be today, might not be for awhile, but one day, your going to get old, your going to get fat, your looks will fade, along with your brain cells, and we will all eventually die. Period.

We're too health concerned?

What with everyone around us having cancer, the autism rate skyrocketing, diabetes cases increasing, more food relatated issues linked to heart disease and increased heart attacks at younger ages, and our young girls going through puberty at age 9 due to hormone-injected foods....

Yeah, we should ignore it. I know, let's put DDT back on our crops...

(sorry, I get kind of opinionated about this stuff!)

Getting back on topic, lots of websites are accessible to the blind. The question I'm interested in, is did the blind community make this request of Target and did Target refuse?

< Message edited by ownedgirlie -- 10/23/2007 2:00:25 PM >

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RE: website sued for not being blind-acsessable - 10/23/2007 5:31:15 PM

shallowdeep

Posts: 343
Joined: 9/1/2006
From: California
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quote:

ORIGINAL: GhitaAmati

Can someone please explain to me how Im supposed to make my website accessable to the blind??

A place to start is here:
http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag.php

To the thread in general:

I'd agree that the suit is not frivolous, although I'm not convinced it will win. Technology has the potential to be able to help individuals with disabilities, and it's unfortunate when that potential isn't realized due mostly to people not caring. Web accessibility is possible and, if designers take it into account, it isn't an unreasonable burden. Federal agencies and their contractors have been legally obligated by the Section 508 Amendment to the Rehabilitation Act to meet some accessibility standards since 1998, so this is not a new issue. With that said, I'm not sure existing legislation like the ADA really covers this situation, so the ruling will be interesting. I think commercial interests online have become established enough that legislation requiring companies with revenue over a certain amount to meet some accessibility requirements in their websites is well warranted, regardless of the case's outcome.

According to Wikipedia, at least, the National Federation of the Blind tried to complain to Target starting in May 2005 and only sued in February of 2006 after negotiations broke down. Even if legally safe, it seems Target could, and probably should, have handled this better...

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RE: website sued for not being blind-acsessable - 10/23/2007 5:38:10 PM

popeye1250

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Damn! And I was going to start a music sharing site for the Deaf.

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RE: website sued for not being blind-acsessable - 10/23/2007 5:41:29 PM

Owner59

Posts: 17033
Joined: 3/14/2006
From: Dirty Jersey
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quote:

ORIGINAL: youngsubgeoff

honestly, we're way too health concerned in this society. Granted, we should take care of ourseves, but things have gone overboard. Heres the thing: one day, may not be today, might not be for awhile, but one day, your going to get old, your going to get fat, your looks will fade, along with your brain cells, and we will all eventually die. Period.

honestly, we're way too health concerned in this society.

ROTFLMAO!

You gotta,gotta.gotta be kid`n us?Right?

We are one of the fattest countries in the world.

We could use all the help,insight,and concern about health, that we can muster.

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RE: website sued for not being blind-acsessable - 10/23/2007 6:07:34 PM

farglebargle

Posts: 10715
Joined: 6/15/2005
From: Albany, NY
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quote:

ORIGINAL: GhitaAmati

Can someone please explain to me how Im supposed to make my website accessable to the blind??

By adhering to STANDARDS, ( check out http://www.w3c.org ) SCREEN READERS can easily translate the contents of a web site into audio.

Heck, I often turn on Text-to-speech for the chatrooms, so that I can do other work, and keep an ear on the conversation.

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RE: website sued for not being blind-acsessable - 10/23/2007 6:08:41 PM

farglebargle

Posts: 10715
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quote:

ORIGINAL: youngsubgeoff

Im just surprised the court even let this go to trial, actually. I hate pointless lawsuits like this. All it does is tie up the justice system, while real crimes are put on hold.

Real crimes are prosecuted in Criminal court, while this is a Civil action. Not handled by the same courts.

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It's not every generation that gets to watch a civilization fall. Looks like we're in for a hell of a show.

ברוך אתה, אדוני אלוקינו, ריבון העולמים, מי יוצר צמחים ריחניים

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RE: website sued for not being blind-acsessable - 10/23/2007 6:32:53 PM

ownedgirlie

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quote:

ORIGINAL: popeye1250

Damn! And I was going to start a music sharing site for the Deaf.

Heh....I bet Beethoven would have enjoyed that

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RE: website sued for not being blind-acsessable - 10/23/2007 6:40:44 PM

kittensmailbox

Posts: 744
Joined: 1/7/2005
From: Youngstown, Ohio
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: youngsubgeoff

Im just surprised the court even let this go to trial, actually. I hate pointless lawsuits like this. All it does is tie up the justice system, while real crimes are put on hold.

It wouldnt be pointless if you were blind and wanted to "look" good or have your home "look" nice for company...

Just because a person has a disability, doesnt mean that they should not have the same things "able" ppl have....

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RE: website sued for not being blind-acsessable - 10/23/2007 7:46:19 PM

CuriousLord

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quote:

ORIGINAL: GhitaAmati

Can someone please explain to me how Im supposed to make my website accessable to the blind??

Probably with.. speaking.. and.. ..erm.. voice recognition? Or maybe intstructions with a briall (however you spell it) mini-keypad..

"Welcome to Target.com! Please ensure that your BlindEye Pad© is plugged in securely. Please press the 1 button to continue."
(1)

"What would you like to do? Buy a product, 1; browse, 2; contact a support represenative, 3; look up information, 4; other, 5."
(1)

"What would you like to find for purchase? Please type in a keyword, or several, now."
(paper towels)

"15 products closely match your quary. Please press the number of the product you'd like to hear about more, or the 'Cancel' button at any time to return to the main menu. Brawny paper towels, 1; [some other brand], 2; [...]
(1)

"Brawny paper towels come in several sizes[..]"

And so forth.

My heart goes to companies, though.. this just doesn't strike me as at all reasonable!

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RE: website sued for not being blind-acsessable - 10/23/2007 8:02:11 PM

Lordandmaster

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Ah yes, the CuriousLord reasonabless standard--a mainstay of American jurisprudence.

quote:

ORIGINAL: CuriousLord

My heart goes to companies, though.. this just doesn't strike me as at all reasonable!

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RE: website sued for not being blind-acsessable - 10/23/2007 8:47:07 PM

DomKen

Posts: 19457
Joined: 7/4/2004
From: Chicago, IL
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quote:

ORIGINAL: CuriousLord

quote:

ORIGINAL: GhitaAmati

Can someone please explain to me how Im supposed to make my website accessable to the blind??

Probably with.. speaking.. and.. ..erm.. voice recognition? Or maybe intstructions with a briall (however you spell it) mini-keypad..

"Welcome to Target.com! Please ensure that your BlindEye Pad© is plugged in securely. Please press the 1 button to continue."
(1)

"What would you like to do? Buy a product, 1; browse, 2; contact a support represenative, 3; look up information, 4; other, 5."
(1)

"What would you like to find for purchase? Please type in a keyword, or several, now."
(paper towels)

"15 products closely match your quary. Please press the number of the product you'd like to hear about more, or the 'Cancel' button at any time to return to the main menu. Brawny paper towels, 1; [some other brand], 2; [...]
(1)

"Brawny paper towels come in several sizes[..]"

And so forth.

My heart goes to companies, though.. this just doesn't strike me as at all reasonable!

Luckily that isn't how it is done.

The biggest change from traditional web design, already made by virtually all authoring tools, is to use CSS instead of html tables for content positioning. I'm puzzled over what Target's site isn't doing although after looking at the site it does use a lot of flash which is notoriusly bad for being done to be accessible.

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