NFB v. Target: Web Accessibility and business

An important class action lawsuit was settled today when Target agreed to pay $6 million in damages to the plaintiffs ( National Federation of the Blind , et al.) because these disabled users could not shop on the Target.com site. Here is a collection of legal mumbo jumbo materials. The WCAG set authored by the W3C is barely used online (and 2.0 is controversial); Section 508 applies only to government-funded agencies and their websites; this class action lawsuit put to test the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 , particularly Title III. Some of the comments posted to various newspapers about the story were particularly enlightening: disabled people are lawsuit-happy whiny bastards; small business owners will be put out of business because making accessible sites is omg so expensive and hard; WWW usage is a privilege, not a right; and, naturally, arguments against the previously stated. The ADA doesn’t specify how online stores shou...