Web Axe

Big news! The NFB versus Target lawsuit is settled! As expected, there are good points and bad points to the settlement. You may read an excellent summary of the settlement by Jared Smith of WebAIM in the blog entry Target lawsuit settled. Some of the wins from the lawsuit are:

• Target will pay NFB $90,000 for the certification and first year of monitoring and then $40,000 per year thereafter.
• Target’s web developers will receive at least one day of accessibility training, to be provided by NFB at a cost of up to $15,000 per session.
• Target will respond to accessibility complaints from web site users.
• Target will pay damages of $6,000,000 to the class action claimants, or at most $7000 per claimant, and will pay $20,000 to the California Center for the Blind.

If you’re really interested, you may read the actual NFB vs. Target Settlement from the Northern District of California. (I find it ironic that the HTML title of this page doesn’t pass accessibility guidelines; it says “Untitled Document”.)

Addendum:
Here’s a press release from NFB from last year (October 7, 2007) with more background on the lawsuit:
Court Ruling Says California Disabled Rights Law Applies to the Web

Addendum:
More on this subject from Accessify, Bruce Lawson, and Access Matters:

• Target lawsuit settled – exactly as it should be
• Two cheers for the Target/NFB accessibility settlement
• Does Target Settlement Really Hit the Target?