Target Corp. has some major manhours in the chute after a federal district court judge ruled that the company’s website is inaccessible to the blind, and therefore violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the California Unruh Civil Rights Act, and the California Disabled Persons Act. The ruling was issued in a case brought by the National Federation of the Blind against Target Corp. The suit, NFB v. Target, was filed as a class action on behalf of all blind Americans who are being denied access to target.com.

The ruling is notable because it extends the protections of the ADA and similar statutes into the virtual sphere. Target had argued that only its physical store locations were covered by the civil rights laws, but under the ruling, all services provided by Target, including its Web site, must be accessible to persons with disabilities.

What this means for Target and other online retailers is that all images must have alt-text, an invisible code embedded beneath graphic images that allows screen readers to detect and vocalize a description of the image to a blind computer user. The company will also have to re-work or work around its current website design which contains inaccessible image maps and other graphical features, preventing blind users from navigating and making use of all of the functions of the website. And because the website requires the use of a mouse to complete a transaction, blind Target customers are unable to make purchases on target.com independently.