Web Site Accessibility Blog

I have entered a new phase of my business life. After four years at The Karcher Group, I am now independant. I have officially started my web consulting company, SiteLogic.

The business will have a few different aspects;

• Speaking at Conferences, Seminars and Businesses.
• Web Site Marketing Consultation and In-house training seminars.
• Usability Consultation.

The name SiteLogic is from my approach to dealing with the entire web site, not just the search engine marketing or the programming, but the site as a whole. All of the elements of the site need to be working in synch to deliver the primary sales message to the visitor.

I am on my way to New York City tomorrow to speak at Search Engine Strategies. I’ll be speaking at the Successful Site Architecture session on Tuesday. Then on Thursday, I’ll be speaking at the SEO Overkill session and a Site Clinic in the afternoon. I hope to see some of the Accessibility Blog readers there at the conference. If you are attending, please introduce yourself, as it is always a privilege to meet others who have an interest in accessibility as well.

Now that things are starting to settle into a groove with the birth of my daughter and the new business, I am expecting the Accessibility updates to flow a little more frequently - if not, feel free to remind me….

Courtesy of the guys over at Accessify, The National Federation of the Blind, the California affiliate and a college student are suing Target. They also want certification for a class action lawsuit (whoopee! $2.00 for everyone!) in order to get Target to provide an accessible web site. Specifically noted in the complaint is the lack of ALT text in the images (or “invisible code”), as the NBC News article states.

I may be a little naïve in this, but did anyone think to attempt a meeting or a formal complaint to Target without jumping into a lawsuit? It seems to be a little premature to go the legal route, as the BNC news article mentions nothing about a previous attempt to inform Target of the problem, or even that target was aware that the website created such a problem. C’mon, really - it’s alt text. Can’t we talk about this like adults?

I support accessible web sites. I would be the first to tell Target that they should have an accessible website. However, who am I to tell them that they must? If a corporation wants to exclude people from using their website, it’s their right to be inaccessible (right now). I would think Target would want to be accessible to everyone, just from the commercial (greed) aspect. In a true commercial environment, why limit the number of customers you can have?

It’s similar to Free Speech in my opinion. You have the right to say what you want, you also have the right to be incorrect and say pretty stupid things. Just be prepared for the backlash when you do.

As a few people mentioned to me lately, the blog has been a bit light on content as the posting rate slowed last month. Well, there was a good reason.

My wife and I celebrated the birth of our third child, Miranda. We couldn’t be happier that everything is fine and that she is a beautiful, healthy baby girl. She is so healthy that she has already put on 2 pounds in just a few weeks.

It’s my job now to get the other girls up and ready in the morning and deflect as much work from their exhausted mother as possible before I head into work. I will say that with this one - my responsibilities have increased dramatically as the other two kids are looking for attention.

So, with the schedule getting under control, I am getting into a routine; as is the rest of the family and the posts will get back on track. I’ve got a big file of recent happenings, so be ready . . . .