1.3 Accessibility and the law
Since the early 1990’s there has been several disability rights that have been passed into law into several countries. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in America and the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) in the UK give more rights to people with disabilities.
Internet companies are now finding themselves under legal pressure by disability rights organisations such as the case against Target.com by the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) in August 2006. The case underlines some of the inaccessible features of the site and took Target.com to court to obtain an injunction. ("AMENDED COMPLAINT", 2006) The outcome of the case was denied in part but some action was granted. The reasons that an injunction was not granted to force them to make accessibility changes to their site were based upon the company having physical stores. ("NATIONAL FEDERATION", 2007). A purely internet based company may not have had the same outcome. The Judge did however highlight that some blind users did use the Target.com site with few problems although it was outweighed by the number of users put forward by the NFB causing the case against the site to be less valid.
The experience of the disabled internet users can depend on the software used to translate what is on the screen in front of them so they can understand it.