Can the blind see your web site? Don't get sued! Hire Agaric Design

NOTE: The campaign of fear tactics used to gain and hold power by so many rulers, notably in the United States in this poor young millennium, is utterly and completely condemned in all circumstances except with regards to our own financial gain.

Is your web site accessible to the blind and visually-impaired?  You might want to make sure it is after you read this NewStandard In Other News summary:

The National Federation of the Blind is suing Target on behalf of 1.3 million people because the company's website lacks certain coding allowing blind computer users to hear audio descriptions of what is on Internet pages. The plaintiffs say the giant retailer is violating state and federal laws that protect the disabled. The case could have implications for virtually every retailer in the US that operates a website and it fuels a wider debate starting to play out in courtrooms: whether anti-discrimination laws apply to the Internet.

Agaric Design follows modern best practices for accessibility, but the basic approach for making web sites accessible is long-standing.  A 1995 paper by Eric Bergman and Earl Johnson of Sun Microsystems Accessibility Program, "Accessible Human-Computer Interaction" discussed the practice of universal design.  The point and goal is to design with all people in mind, not the mythical average user:

Depending on their disabiilty, users can be especially affected by usability defects. Low vision users are sensitive to font and color conflicts, as well as problems with layout and context. Blind users are affected by poor interface flow, tab order, layout, and terminology. Users with physical disabilities affecting movement can be sensitive to tasks that require an excessive number of steps or wide range of movement. Usability testing with these users can uncover usability defects that are important in the larger population.

Agaric Design: so much more than web sites, and web sites that are simply so much more.