[wac-announce] News from the WAC: Winter Workshops, NFB Sues Target

[Ken Petri]

NEWS from the OSU Web Accessibility Center (WAC)
- February 18, 2006 -

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In This Email:
   * Winter 2006 Workshop Schedule
   * NFB Suit Against Target Web Site
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WINTER 2006 WORKSHOP SCHEDULE

We are giving four workshops at the end of the Winter quarter. Two are
cross-listed for Carmen training and focus on Word, PDF, and
PowerPoint on the web. Another is an advanced introduction to HTML and
CSS for accessible web sites. The fourth takes a look at techniques
for testing web site accessibility.

Please join us: http://wac.osu.edu/workshops/


NFB SUIT AGAINST TARGET WEB SITE

You may have heard that the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) has
brought a class-action suit against Target. The NFB charges that the
Target web site (www.target.com) is inaccessible to screen reader
users. You can read about it here:

--> http://www.dralegal.org/cases/private_business/nfb_v_target.php

Matt May of the Web Standards Project (WaSP) has written an excellent
commentary on the suit, commending the case as something that "needed
to happen" and pointing out that, though Target is certainly
negligent, it is only one of many major e-commerce web sites that
impose serious impediments to people with disabilities (and lesser
impediments in committing what might be called crimes against
usability).

May's ultimate focus is on the pettiness and laziness of some
developers and companies, but we might also note how just plain silly
inaccessibility is for e-commerce. With all of the stress on "just in
time" inventory and "Total Quality Management" techniques, one would
think a universally usable web site would be a business no-brainer.

Have a look at the other comments on the WaSP page, as well as May's, here:

--> http://webstandards.org/buzz/archive/2006_02.html


With Kind Regards,
Your WAC Staff
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  OSU Web Accessibility Center
  102 Pomerene Hall
  1760 Neil Ave.
  Columbus, OH 43210
  Phone: (614) 292-1760
  mailto:wac at osu.edu
  http://wac.osu.edu
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