So, you know that Target is being sued over their inaccessible website, right?

[conuly]

Once again, a useful entry by kevinleitch.

The whole idiocy is summed up in one comment down the page (which I'll further sum up here): Target is spending a whole lot of money in a lawsuit, when it'd cost barely anything to get a competant web designer to alter their site. At the same time, they're not only losing money from blind customers (and, quite probably, their indignant families and friends who know better than to use inaccessible sites) but they're creating general ill-will which will cause them to lose even *more* money - or, at least, to gain less than possible, which is almost the same thing.

Brilliant move, Target.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

ok, i checked that link but i'm still not quite knowledgeable here. what could Target do to increase "accessablility" for blind people? make audio? or...what? Is it something that most websites do and Target is just refusing to do? Sorry to be ignorant in this matter, so help me out please?

[codeman38.livejournal.com]

One of the biggest concessions they could make is to simply add an attribute (named 'alt') to all images, describing their content in text. Words can be read by a speech synthesizer or represented on a braille display; graphics can't.

[conuly]

That seems to be Mr. Leitch's argument, and it makes sense to me.

[literalgirl.livejournal.com]

Totally true, and good programmers always fill in their "alt". :-)

However, I still hate WalMart more. I've only ever been in one ONCE my whole life, and I plan on keeping it that way.

Costco is my fave.

[codeman38.livejournal.com]

And the saddest thing is that so many sites don't do this... despite the fact that it's actually required for a page to be considered valid, standards-compliant HTML.

Something else that's frustrating from an accessibility standpoint, incidentally, is those CAPTCHA tests— that is, the things that ask you to enter the text shown in an image to prove that you're a human. Well, a sighted, non-dyslexic human, anyway... I find that I have a really hard time reading the text in some of those because they're so distorted to avoid recognition by computer algorithms. So much so that the ones that offer audio alternatives, I actually find the audio easier to comprehend, and this is from someone with auditory processing disorder. >_<

[literalgirl.livejournal.com]

Yes! I am always blowing those CAPTCHA things. Grrrr.

[(Anonymous)]

ok, i checked that link but i'm still not quite knowledgeable here. what could Target do to increase "accessablility" for blind people? make audio? or...what? Is it something that most websites do and Target is just refusing to do? Sorry to be ignorant in this matter, so help me out please?

[codeman38.livejournal.com]

One of the biggest concessions they could make is to simply add an attribute (named 'alt') to all images, describing their content in text. Words can be read by a speech synthesizer or represented on a braille display; graphics can't.

[conuly]

That seems to be Mr. Leitch's argument, and it makes sense to me.

[literalgirl.livejournal.com]

Totally true, and good programmers always fill in their "alt". :-)

However, I still hate WalMart more. I've only ever been in one ONCE my whole life, and I plan on keeping it that way.

Costco is my fave.

[codeman38.livejournal.com]

And the saddest thing is that so many sites don't do this... despite the fact that it's actually required for a page to be considered valid, standards-compliant HTML.

Something else that's frustrating from an accessibility standpoint, incidentally, is those CAPTCHA tests— that is, the things that ask you to enter the text shown in an image to prove that you're a human. Well, a sighted, non-dyslexic human, anyway... I find that I have a really hard time reading the text in some of those because they're so distorted to avoid recognition by computer algorithms. So much so that the ones that offer audio alternatives, I actually find the audio easier to comprehend, and this is from someone with auditory processing disorder. >_<

[literalgirl.livejournal.com]

Yes! I am always blowing those CAPTCHA things. Grrrr.