RE: [SEC508] FW: Legal Precedent Set for Web Accessibility

David Poehlman wrote:
> Begin forwarded message:
> Subject: Re: [SEC508] FW: Legal Precedent Set for Web Accessibility
> 
> This is far from a done deal and not yet a far-reaching precedent -
> the court rejected the motion to dismiss on some counts, but ruled in
> favor of Target on others. The case has to still proceed and is
> subject to appeals, of course.   
> 
> For instance, note this part of the ruling:
> "However, she [the judge] dismissed parts of the suit dealing with
> Web information and services unconnected with the company's
> brick-and-mortar stores."  
> 
> See a another take on the ruling here:
> 
> http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_4305423

Thanks for this David.

While I am not a lawyer, it would be interesting to see the actual judgment
from the court, rather than relying on interpretive accounts.

It would seem that, while it is not a TKO, an important precedent *has* been
set however; that the duty to accommodate transcends simple brick and mortar
and cover's an entities on-line presence; perhaps not fully (and this is
where the actual judgment would be helpful), but clearly enough to send yet
more shock waves through the business community, who until now seem to have
taken a path of least resistance in the area of web accessibility.  The fear
of serious legal litigation has an interesting effect on business... It
raises the stakes where it counts most to them - the wallet.  If nothing
else, the current ruling appears to help negate the negative effects that
the Southwest Airlines ruling brought to bear, and puts business on notice
that this won't just go away.

I'm sure however that this is not the last of it, by a long stretch (which,
in a weird way, is actually kind of good... Keeps shining the light on the
topic, keeping the issue(s) on the radar...)

Cheers!

JF
---
John Foliot 
Academic Technology Specialist - Online Accessibility
Stanford University
560 Escondido Mall 
Meyer Library 181 
Stanford, CA 94305-3093

Received on Friday, 8 September 2006 18:08:30 UTC