Target being sued 'cos designers didn't adhere to accessibility standards ... did you know Yahoo Answers fails

[Bitusan]

the test also?Try it:http://webxact.watchfire.com/Insert the URL for answers into the above testing site.Since accessibility standards, practices and testing facilities do exist, are designers in general just being lazy? Do they need to get "spanked" to whip them into shape? Is it a failure of the educational system for web designers/programmers?

[Kookiemon]

I've been making people aware of accessibility issues in web design for nearly 10 years. In all honesty, the issue lies with the HTML standard. The standard focuses on aesthetic capabilities and less on organizational structure. If there was a hierarchical HTML schemata that one could use for all the menus on a web page, navigating a website would not be an issue.Microsoft made a reasonable attempt at resolving accessibility issues with the release of Internet Explorer 4, however it was not promoted very well. It also quickly became obsolete with the introduction of CSS2 which allowed for non-sequential placement of objects on web pages which throws off many browsers designed for those with disabilities.That's not to say that companies can't do their part to make their web sites more accessible though. I can see perfectly fine and whenever I look at Target's web site, I get nauseous. It's just a poorly designed web site. Wal-mart and Best Buy both have similar design problems. I can only imagine how difficult it is to use for those with disabilities.

[vort3xyz]

Nothing in the industry is going to change unless there is a successful lawsuit. Its been said for years, and my clients have ignored it for years every time I preach about accessibility and conformance to the w3 standards. Anytime this comes up, I give their technical liason or CIO, etc a free copy of the Jeffery Zeldman book, designing with web standards. It sits on a shelf, ignored by them.