MSNBC reports that Target was just hit with a US$6 million settlement and damages for not making it’s site accessible to blind. They’ve agreed to a 3 year oversight relationship with constant testing by National Federation for the Blind and their screen reader testing software.

Wow. This is a bit of a wake up call for American businesses that have long ignored or under delivered on the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The key here is that Target contended that the ADA only covered physical spaces, not electronic ones. I’m no lawyer, but this is at least some type of precedent for other lawsuits agains US businesses for non-accessible and unusable sites.

It’s a good time to get into the accessibility consulting business! Anyone wanna work together on one?