Word: sextons
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...when the economy changed, and more and more Americans started doing their business online, the bricks-and mortar merchants seemed not to have learned their lesson. Sexton, for example, could get around the stores in town, but he couldn't easily navigate a computer screen, a tough predicament for a Bay Area teenager headed to U.C. Berkeley...
...They included using prominent headings on the site, putting invisible alt-text - it's what causes messages to pop up when you move a cursor over an image - in graphics, and allowing functions to be controlled by keystrokes rather than just mouse clicks. Many companies followed the guidelines, allowing Sexton and his peers to use software like JAWS for translating the websites into spoken words or even Braille. Last summer, Google got into the act by introducing Google Access, a search process that ranks websites according to how easy they are to read...
...companies and websites went along with the guidelines, including Target.com. So earlier this year, Sexton and the Federation of the Blind sued Target for violating the disabilities act with an inaccessible website. It seemed a futile move. Everyone knew the act applied only to a "place of accommodation," a physical spot rather than some space in the ether. Everyone knew that because courts had said so, and Target's lawyers made this compelling point in asking the judge to dismiss the suit. But everyone, it turned out, was wrong...
...Through some creative lawyering, Sexton and the federation argued that Target.com was as much a part of Target's 1,400 retail stores as the shelves stocked with crockpots and ladies' boots. The website told you what was in the stores, what was on special there, where the stores were located, how to get coupons online, and scads of other information that made shopping at the stores easier. By limiting access to Target.com, they argued, the company was limiting full use of the stores...
...worked. And though Target concedes nothing, saying its website "complies with all applicable laws" and that it is "committed to vigorously defending this case," Sexton calls this "a big victory for us," one that helps propel his plan to open a training center for the blind after he graduates from Berkeley...