W3C Upgrades Web Accessibility Standards - Page 2

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Making the case for enterprise adoption

The WAI is also seeking to get buy-in from the broader business community beyond its immediate supporters. It lists the business and financial cases for enterprises to adopt disability-friendly Web development methods on its site to help business executives make the case for disabled-friendly Web development.

Improved Web accessibility for business is not just a feel-good measure, its lack can be costly, as department store chain Target found out when it was hit with a lawsuit filed jointly by Bruce F. Sexton, Jr., a blind Californian, the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), and the NFB of California in 2006.

The suit alleged Target's Web site was not accessible to people with disabilities using screen access technology, which converts text on the computer screen to synthesized speech or Braille, and that Target had not revamped its site to let blind people access and use it.

The suit ballooned into a class-action lawsuit. In August of this year, it was settled with Target agreeing to make its site accessible to the disabled, paying damages of $6 million to the claimants and $20,000 to set up the California Center for the Blind. Target will also pay the plaintiffs' legal fees, but admitted no wrongdoing.

"A lot of organizations get into Web accessibility because they figure it's going to reduce their legal exposure," Brewer said. "WCAG 2.0 will help them cope."