I fully support people’s civil rights and freedoms, and regulations that help people with disabilities survive and succeed in society. Still, I sometimes wonder if certain things can go a bit too far. Recently, a blind student sued the retailer giant Target for having a web site that couldn’t be parsed by his special reader…and won, even though no regulations actually exist to control the accessibility of web site content…

Target has settled a class action lawsuit with the National Federation of the Blind over accessibility complaints with Target.com. Despite the law being unclear as to whether the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) applies to websites, the company will pay a substantial fee and update its web site to make it accessible to the blind.

In February 2006, Bruce Sexton Jr., a student at the University of California-Berkeley and president of the California Association of Blind Students, sued Target because its web site was inaccessible to the blind. Filed in conjunction with the National Federation of the Blind, the suit was used as to spotlight many corporate sites that don’t play well—if at all—with screen reading technology.

Read the full article here.