When I attempted to summarize the substance of the accessibility lawsuit against Target, I commented in frustration about the extensive ignorance concerning accessibility and the rights of the disabled. Today, I ran across a post by Bruce Lawson which is devoted to this very problem. If you read the post, it’s really necessary to read through the comments. The post summarizes a few relatively high-profile comments on the subject, such as those from Molly Holzschlag and Derek Featherstone. But in […]
Continue reading “Accessibility is about Equality” »Category: Accessibility
Accessibility Issues for Learning Disabilities
My last post discussed accessibility as it relates to devices. The most common understanding of accessibility relates to visual disabilities. But learning disabilities are also an important aspect to making a website accessible. Learning disabilities are also the most difficult aspect of accessible planning. Determining how to make your site accessible to an individual with a high function disability such as dyslexia or Asperger syndrome can be challenging – and making it accessible to individuals with more severe disabilities such […]
Continue reading “Accessibility Issues for Learning Disabilities” »Designing for the Mobile Web
I’ve been thinking about the mobile web today. Accessible web design is all about providing access to web-based information to all users and platforms – and the mobile web is a fast-growing and very challenging area. The biggest challenge with mobile web design is the fact that you just can’t test it very easily. There are dozens of mobile browsers and related products. Opera has supplied options to test for small screens in their browser for quite some time, but […]
Continue reading “Designing for the Mobile Web” »First Amendment Rights and Accessibility
The Washington Examiner, a local paper published in Washington DC and nearby areas, published an editorial on February 20th suggesting that legal enforcement of accessibility requirements for web sites may not be constitutional under the first amendment. The editorial quotes an unnamed Supreme Court decision: The choice of material to go into a newspaper, and the decisions made as to limitations on the size and content of the paper, and treatment of public issues and public officials — whether fair […]
Continue reading “First Amendment Rights and Accessibility” »Target Lawsuit so far . . .
Target is being sued because their website is not accessible to blind internet users. The lawsuit is being brought forward by the National Federation of the Blind and one of its members, Bruce Sexton, a student at the University of California, Berkeley. Target’s website is unquestionably NOT accessible. In fact, at the time the lawsuit was brought forward, there were portions of the site which could only be accessed with the use of a mouse. This was a very extreme […]
Continue reading “Target Lawsuit so far . . .” »