Accessibility in Cyberspace: The ADA's Applicability Online

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November 3, 2006

A federal district court judge recently ruled that mega-retailer Target can be sued if its website is inaccessible to the blind. In this class action suit—brought by the National Federation of the Blind (NFB)—the Court rejected Target’s argument that only physical stores were covered by anti-discrimination laws, ruling instead that certain aspects of Target’s virtual space—target.com— are subject to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and California state law.

NFB and University of California Berkeley blind student Bruce Sexton brought the lawsuit, contending that Target’s website violates the ADA as well as California anti-discrimination laws by failing to include, among other things, “alt-text”—which screen readers use to vocalize a description of an image to a blind computer user. The plaintiffs allege that these and other access barriers prevent blind customers from purchasing products online, locating retail stores, refilling prescriptions, or printing coupons to redeem at stores.

Target argued that the plaintiffs’ case should be dismissed, but the Court disagreed, saying that anti-discrimination laws do apply to websites such as target.com.

While this is not the first high-profile case on the topic—asimilar suit against Southwest Airlines was dismissed in 2004—this case has the potential to affect websites nationwide.

So what will these proceedings and the current ruling mean for retail websites?

Join Pike & Fisher and a distinguished panel of legal and IT experts for an in-depth look at this controversial ruling.

What Was Covered:

What exactly does the ADA mandate?
Who has been litigating?
What types of organizations and websites have been targeted? Purely e-commerce companies? Companies with both e-commerce and brick-and-mortar plays? What about government websites?
What types of websites would be exempt from ADA mandates?
What software/applications can web site owners and developers employ to achieve compliance and what are the related costs?
What about state laws?

Who Attended:

In-house counsel
Web designers
Corporate Executives
IT personnel

About the Speakers:

Moderator - Christopher Wolf - Partner, Proskauer Rose
MSNBC calls Proskauer litigator Christopher Wolf "a pioneer in Internet law." And, indeed, Chris was involved in the earliest matters involving the Internet, helping to make new law for new technologies. Chris has written and spoken widely on Internet and privacy law, including at Harvard and Stanford Law Schools; as an adjunct professor at Washington & Lee University School of Law; on CLE panels such as PLI Institutes; at the Brookings Institution; at the Second Circuit Judicial Conference; at the Bar Association of the City of New York; and at international conferences in Sweden, France and Israel.

Laurence Paradis - Executive Director and Co-Director of Litigation for Disability Rights Advocates
Mr. Paradis specializes in class action and other high impact disability rights litigation. He was recently named by California Lawyer Magazine one of California's Lawyers of the Year for his victories in civil rights cases in 2003. In 2004, he was voted Trial Lawyer of the Year by the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association. He has also assisted the courts as a court appointed mediator, as a Ninth Circuit Judicial Council Lawyer Representative from the U.S. District Court for Northern District of California and as a member of a Magistrate Judge Selection Panel, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Currently, he is representing the plaintiffs in the high profile case, NFB v. Target.

Jim Thatcher - Co-Author of Web Accessibility: Web Standards & Regulatory Compliance
Dr. Jim Thatcher received his PhD from the University of Michigan in Computer Science. He then joined the Mathematical Sciences Department of IBM Research and started working on an "audio access system" for the IBM Personal Computer, a system for providing on-screen information to a blind user through synthesized voice. Jim served as Vice-Chair of the Electronic and Information Technology Access Advisory Committee (EITAAC).He wrote the course on Web Accessibility for Section 508 for ITTATC, the Information Technology Technical Assistance and Training Center. He received a Distinguished Service award from The National Federation of the Blind and the Vice President's Hammer Award for his work with the Department of Education on the development of Software Accessibility Standards. He co-authored Constructing Accessible Web Sites and is currently serving as the plaintiff’s expert witness in NFB v. Target.

Reginald E. Jones - Of Counsel, DLA Piper
Reginald E. Jones focuses on the area of labor and employment law providing training and counseling to clients on all aspects of such matters. From 1996 through 2000, Mr. Jones served as a Commissioner of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) where he chaired the EEOC’s Task Force to study and report on best equal employment opportunity policies, practices, and procedures in the private sector and championed expansion of the agency’s voluntary mediation and cooperative enforcement initiatives. He works with clients to design diversity programs, as well as design, institute, maintain and trouble shoot their in-house EEO compliance and ADR systems. Mr. Jones is often retained by other outside or in-house counsel to serve as an expert witness on EEO investigation and compliance matters, a neutral investigator, arbitrator or mediator to assist parties in resolving workplace disputes, and as a monitor of court-ordered or voluntary consent decree agreements.

Elizabeth Nieliwocki -
Assistant Attorney General, NY Attorney General's Office
Since January 2003, Ms. Nieliwocki has been an Assistant Attorney General in the Internet Bureau of the New York Attorney General's Office. The Internet Bureau works to protect consumers' rights with respect to cutting-edge Internet issues, such as spyware and adware, online privacy and web accessibility. While at the Attorney General's Office, Elizabeth has successfully negotiated several settlements providing important protectionsfor consumers, including a reformation of America Online's cancellation policies and practices and the web accessibility agreements with Priceline.com and Ramada.com. Prior to joining the Attorney General's Office, Elizabeth worked in private practice,first as a litigation associate at Holland & Knight and as a trademark associate at Ladas & Parry, both in New York City. She graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in May 1996, where she distinguished herself in the moot court program, as a finalist at the Leahy Cup Moot Court Competition and a member and coach of the Craven Constitutional Law Moot Court Team. She was also a member of The Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics.

Mike Cherim - Web Designer, Green-Beast.com
Mike Cherim specializes in website development and design using only the strictest, most standards-compliant mark-up or coding. His focus is to create accessible sites, which are visually striking while being considerate to the largest segment of the population possible. He is also the director of Green-Spot Ltd., a successful 15- year old corporation specializing in Integrated Pest Management.

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Accessibility in Cyberspace: The ADA's Applicability Online Audio recording on CD-ROM -- $229.00