Should Companies be Sued for Web Site Accessability Issues.

A hot discussion at Sitepoint about Web Site Accessibility has erupted after the filing of a class action lawsuit against retailer Target. With people taking various positions on the issues, I wanted to put in my thoughts here.

If you are a web developer in the US, you've probably heard of 508 accessibility. This is law that has been put into place that requires certain accessibility requirements for the disabled in the US. Though Section 508 pertains specifically to several technologies for the benefit of the federal employees with disabilities and the general public using (certain) federal systems, the US ADA(Americans with Disabilities Act) also provides what it means to provide an accessible web site.

What these laws require, is basically an alternative form for information that is displayed on a web site. For example, images should have alternate text using alt="some text" within an image tag for the web site. Other ways to make a web site accessible includes using labels for form elements, using text based navigation, etc. One way that some sites manage to accomplish this is to just create a text version of their web site for those that require it.

The W3C, the standards body for web development has issued guidelines on how to make websites more accessible. These guidelines are not entirely in line with laws as some of them go into ways to make web sites more accessible than required. You can view the W3c web site accessibility guidelines to see other ways that web sites can be made more accessible.

As the debate goes, there are basically three perspectives on who should be responsible and/or care about accessible design. These perspectives on web site accessibility are as follows:

• A business should be able to choose whether or not the create web sites with accessibility in mind and the government should not be involved with law making and enforcement.
• The government has made the laws for the benefit of all in the public and needs to protect all individuals.
• I don't agree with the government making the laws and feel that each web site owner should be able to do as they wish. However, the government has enacted legislation and it needs to be followed by all.

Though the arguments vary, most agree that building a web site with accessibility in mind will provide a better experience for all users. At the same time, there is the added benefit that search engines will be able to index those web sites easier as well since they can't see images and other elements of a web page as well.

My point here is to not argue for any of those cases but to show you what people are saying. I will mention however that the government should be checking their own web sites before they prosecute the public. I have seen many government web sites that are not accessible by the laws that have been set by the same government.

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