Judges ruling in ADA suit is a wake up call

A recent article on law.com is something of a warning shot across the bow of web developers regarding federal ADA discrimination laws:

A federal judge's decision not to dismiss a discrimination case against retailer Target Corp. for operating a Web site inaccessible to the blind opens the door to Internet-related Americans with Disabilities Act claims.

The recent order is believed to the first ruling from a judge that the ADA can apply to the Internet, and lawyers from both sides of the bar anticipate more cases.

This is not the first attempt at a lawsuit against an online presence in the name of accessibility. While it is worth noting that the only ruling here is that the case not be dismissed and no injunction was set against Target, it should put all web developers on high alert going forward. Proper accessibility for the visually imparied is something that is generally treated as an afterthought, a "nice to have" or not considered at all, and as cases multiply, it is clear that the matter is being given more and more weight. This is the first suit that has been allowed to go forward, and will not likely be the last.

While retailer web sites certainly get the mass of traffic, and will therefore likely bear the brunt of the lawsuits, those of us dealing with the financial and life sciences verticals should keep this in mind going forward. It should keep us a bit more sober when our designs are faced with Flash detractors, and keep us mindful of properly formed tags when coding. Not that Flash or other non-crawlable technologies should be written off, but accessibility is going to become an issue more and more closely examined by the dreaded legal departments of our clients.

Take note... it looks like going forward, ADA = CYA.