Blind Student Hits Target with Class Action Lawsuit - Uphill Battle for Class Action?
(Page 2 of 4 )
The good news for blind web surfers is that Judge Marilyn Patel, of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, certified the case as a class action that can be joined by all blind Internet users throughout the United States who have tried without success to access Target’s web site. But that’s not the only class recognized in this lawsuit. There is a second class, specifically for blind Californians who have tried without success to access Target.com.
Apparently, it’s not just the Americans with Disabilities Act that applies here – or more precisely, might apply here; whether it actually does apply is a matter for the courts to decide. California passed two statutes that might also have a bearing on this case, namely the California Unruh Civil Rights Act and the California Disabled Persons Act. So even if the suit does not proceed well at the federal level, it may fare better at the state level.
Frankly, it’s going to need all the help it can get. These kinds of lawsuits have not met with much success in recent years. A few years ago, the National Federation for the Blind sued America Online on grounds similar to the current suit. This met with mixed success; AOL changed its site to bring it into compliance, so the NFB dropped the lawsuit – which prevented the setting of any precedent. New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer threatened Priceline.com and Ramada.com with lawsuits in mid-2004 unless they made their sites accessible. They did so, but again, this did not set a precedent. In September of the same year, however, a case against Southwest.com went to trial – and Southwest won, because a judge ruled that the ADA applies only to physical spaces, not web sites.
Still, it’s not unusual for laws to be updated to take changing technologies and needs into account; the Telecommunications Act of 1996 is just one of many examples of this. With the Internet becoming more and more important to people’s lives, it is quite possible that we will see some kind of ruling that stretches the ADA’s provisions to the web.
Next: Target Isn’t Alone >>
More Website Marketing Articles
More By Terri Wells
