Blind Web Users Fight, Sue for More Accessible Sites
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
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  AP
Oct. 3: Chris Danielsen of the National 
Federation of the Blind in New York demonstrates
software used to help the blind surf the Web.
Oct. 3: Chris Danielsen of the National 
Federation of the Blind in New York demonstrates
software used to help the blind surf the Web.
This is what the Internet sounds like to Chris Danielsen.
Danielsen is blind. He's using a
software
  program called
JAWS
  that converts the text on a
Web
  page into a computerized voice that comes out 
through a speaker, allowing him to
surf the Web using keyboard commands instead of a 
mouse - the same way lots of blind
people use the Internet.
In this case, his computer is listing all the Web 
links on the page he's on and telling
him that the highlighted link his cursor is on 
now will take him to the "Your Account"
section on Wal-Mart's Web site.
Danielsen, who writes a blog called "
The Voice of the Nation's Blind
" for the
National Federation of the Blind
, says accessing the Internet has been a "huge boon" for blind people.
It's allowed them to accomplish a great number of 
tasks on their own that would otherwise
present difficulties or require the help of a 
sighted person, such as banking, buying
plane tickets and shopping for things like groceries and music.
But like any evolving technology, accessing the 
Internet has hardly been a smooth
ride for the blind.
Some sites can be difficult to navigate, 
particularly if they contain relatively
few text links and rely more on graphics and 
other visual elements that screen-reading
software such as Jaws can't interpret.
That's why the NFB, an organization that 
represents blind people, is suing Target
Corp. (
TGT
), saying that its Web site is inaccessible to blind Internet users.
Last month a
federal
  judge in California allowed the NFB's case to 
proceed, rejecting Target's argument
that its Web site wasn't subject to the
Americans With Disabilities Act
, a 1990 law that requires retailers and other 
public places to make accommodations
for people with disabilities. Target argued that 
the law only covered physical spaces.
The case, which is entering a pretrial phase 
called discovery in U.S. District Court
for the Northern District of California, could 
set an important precedent for applying
federal accessibility law to the Internet.
Target said in a statement that its Web site was 
"committed to providing an online
experience that is accessible to all of our 
guests. Despite the lawsuit brought forward
by the National Federation of the Blind, we have 
always and will continue to implement
new technologies
  to our Web site."
John Pare, a spokesman for the NFB, said most Web 
sites are far easier to navigate
than Target's.
In a demonstration of screen-reading software for 
The Associated Press, Danielsen
showed that many links on Target's side were 
unintelligible to the JAWS software,
and that the final purchase required the use of a 
mouse, something even the most
sophisticated blind Web surfer would have trouble with.
However, he was able to navigate other sites and 
purchased a CD from Amazon.com (
JAWS, made by Freedom Scientific, is a popular 
kind of screen-reading software, but
there are others, including Window-Eyes, made by 
GW Micro, and Hal, made by Dolphin
Computer Access.
Many Web sites already have made major progress 
in becoming accessible to the blind,
and some, such as those run by the government, are required to do so by law.
Yet surfing the Internet is not always worry-free for the blind.
Crista Earl, the head of Web operations for the
American Foundation for the Blind
  in New York, said graphics that don't contain 
textual labels - which can be read
by screen-reading software - are a common 
obstacle for blind Internet users, as are
"forms" that are unlabeled. Forms are the little 
boxes where you insert data, such
as a book title you wanted to search for.
The decision to hold Target's Web site to the 
same standards of accessibility as
its physical store under the Americans with 
Disabilities Act was considered a victory
by many advocates for the blind, but at the same 
time others worry that the ruling
could be read too narrowly.
Not every business or Web site is subject to the 
Americans with Disabilities Act,
said John D. Kemp., a lawyer with the Washington 
law firm Powers, Pyles, Sutter &
Verville P.C.
The ADA applies mainly to public places such as 
restaurants, retailers, movie theaters
and health care institutions, explained Kemp, who 
has long worked on compliance issues
related to disabilities, employment and technology.
For an electronic retailer such as Amazon.com, 
which has no physical store, the law
is unclear, Kemp said.
"There is no well defined policy in this area at all," he said.
However, Kemp noted that many businesses, such as 
banks, see a strong business rationale
for making their sites accessible, and have moved aggressively to do so.
Meanwhile, other retailers are also moving to 
adapt their Web sites to screen-reading
software. Kelly Groehler, a spokeswoman for Best Buy Co. (
BBY
), says the company has made a number of changes 
to its site since late last year,
including incorporating "alt tags" - or text that 
labels items like graphics - into
its site.
Best Buy also moved code for drop-down menus to 
the bottom of the page, where it's
less likely to duplicate other elements on the page.
"We're trying to be proactive here," Groehler 
said. Walmart.com spokeswoman Amy Colella
says the site has made sure it is "reasonably accessible" to the blind.
Other retailers are making similar efforts, but 
it remains a challenge due to the
continuing evolution in the technologies used by 
blind people to surf the Internet,
says Scott Silverman, executive director of 
Shop.org, a division of the National
Retail Federation for online retailers.
"As the retailers' Web sites continue to evolve 
to stay competitive in the marketplace,
sometimes the technologies necessary to do that 
are a little bit ahead of where the
screen-readers are," Silverman said. "It's a very 
fast-moving environment. Retailers
want to serve all their customers, including blind people."
Internet search giant Google Inc. (
GOOG
) is getting into the act as well. In July it launched a
project
  to identify and rank Web sites that offer 
significant accessibility to the blind.
As more information and services migrate online, 
keeping access open to it is of
paramount importance to advocates for the blind.
"The blind have more access to information than 
they ever had in history - but that's
only true to the extent that Web accessibility is 
maintained," Danielsen said. "The
technology is out there, and we don't need 
barriers to be put in our way. Give us
a way in."


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