Judge: ADA Lawsuit Against Target Can Proceed

Do websites of brick-and-mortar businesses in the US need to comply full with the Americans with Disabilities Act? The answer may be determined in court following a judge's ruling.

In February, a blind University of California-Berkeley student sued Target over the discount retailer's web site. Bruce Sexton Jr., president of the California Association of Blind Students, alleges that Target's web site violates the Americans with Disabilities Act by not making the site fully navigable by the visually impaired. His lawsuit was filed in conjunction with the National Federation of the Blind and seeks class-action status.

Late last week, a judge ruled that the lawsuit could go forward. In the case of the National Federation of the Blind v. Target, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel ruled that retailers can be sued if their websites are not accessible to the blind. In her opinion for the US District Court for the Northern District of California, Patel wrote that the ordinary meaning of the ADA's prohibition against discrimination in the enjoyment of goods, services, facilities or privileges, is that whatever goods or services the place provides, it cannot discriminate on the basis of disability in providing enjoyment of those goods and services.