Hey there!  I'm Alix Shadonnay at the business desk and I'd like to start the week by issuing a warning to all American companies of all sizes.  Pay attention or if you don't you run the risk of being taken to court by several large and influential consumer groups.

My warning is very serious and I'm referring to the Americans with Disabilities Act.  You need to learn why you should be paying attention and what the penalties are going to be if you don't.  These penalties are very high and the following article will illustrate what could happen to you if you don't.  Last week we published an article on why United Airlines is presently in hot water and hopefully this article will help you to see that this is no laughing matter.   Read this article carefully, learn what is being demanded and why, and think of how you can use this article to create some very important and lucrative opportunities for yourself.  If you need more proof then check out our book Untapped Wealth Discovered before you leave our website.  This very affordable book will show why you need to pay attention to this article plus similar ones.

I'd like to wish our Canadian cousins a very happy Thanksgiving and I also wish you a very relaxing evening. 

Court rules Target must make website accessible to the blind
KARE11 TV, Minnesota, September 07, 2006
A federal district court judge ruled Wednesday that a retailer may be sued
if its website is inaccessible to the blind. The ruling was issued in a case
brought by the National Federation of the Blind against Target Corp.
The suit charges that Target's website ( http://www.target.com ) is
inaccessible to the blind, and therefore violates the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA), the California Unruh Civil Rights Act, and the
California Disabled Persons Act. Target asked the court to dismiss the
action by arguing that no law requires Target to make its website
accessible. The Court denied Target's motion to dismiss and held that the
federal and state civil rights laws do apply to a website such as
target.com.
The suit, NFB v. Target, was filed as a class action on behalf of all blind
Americans who are being denied access to target.com. The named plaintiffs
are the NFB, the NFB of California, and a blind college student, Bruce "BJ"
Sexton.
The plaintiffs are represented by Disability Rights Advocates, a
Berkeley-based non-profit law firm that specializes in high-impact cases on
behalf of people with disabilities;
The court held: "the 'ordinary meaning' of the ADA's prohibition against
discrimination in the enjoyment of goods, services, facilities or
privileges, is that whatever goods or services the place provides, it cannot
discriminate on the basis of disability in providing enjoyment of those
goods and services." The court thus rejected Target's argument that only its
physical store locations were covered by the civil rights laws, ruling
instead that all services provided by Target, including its Web site, must
be accessible to persons with disabilities.
"This ruling is a great victory for blind people throughout the country,"
said NFB President Dr. Marc Maurer. "We are pleased that the court
recognized that the blind are entitled to equal access to retail websites."
Dr. Maurer explained that blind persons access websites by using keyboards
in conjunction with screen-reading software, which vocalizes visual
information on a computer screen.
Target's website contains significant access barriers that prevent blind
customers from browsing among and purchasing products online, as well as
from finding important corporate information such as employment
opportunities, investor news, and company policies.
The plaintiffs charge that target.com fails to meet the minimum standard of
web accessibility. It lacks compliant alt-text, an invisible code embedded
beneath graphic images that allows screen readers to detect and vocalize a
description of the image to a blind computer user. It also contains
inaccessible image maps and other graphical features, preventing blind users
from navigating and making use of all of the functions of the website. And
because the website requires the use of a mouse to complete a transaction,
blind Target customers are unable to make purchases on target.com
independently.
Explaining the ramification of the ruling, Mazen M. Basrawi, Equal Justice
Works Fellow at Disability Rights Advocates, noted that: "the court
clarified that the law requires that any place of public accommodation is
required to ensure that it does not discriminate when it uses the internet
as a means to enhance the services it offers at a physical location."
"I hope that I can soon shop online at Target.com just like anyone else,"
said UC Berkeley student BJ Sexton, who is a named plaintiff in the lawsuit.
"I believe that millions of blind people like me can use the Internet just
as easily as do the sighted, if websites are accessible."
http://www.kare11.com/money/business_article.aspx?storyid=134062

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