More Stupidity, Thanks to the Federal Government

Sigh. More evidence that we live in a slightly over-regulated society...

A federal district court judge ruled Wednesday that a retailer may be sued if its website is inaccessible to the blind. The ruling was issued in a case brought by the National Federation of the Blind against Target Corp.

The suit charges that Target's website ( http://www.target.com ) 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. Target asked the court to dismiss the action by arguing that no law requires Target to make its website accessible. The Court denied Target's motion to dismiss and held that the federal and state civil rights laws do apply to a website such as target.com.

(hat tip: Patterico) For the record, I think Target should make its website accessible to blind people, because I'm guessing the costs would not be terrible and it would make good business sense.

But that's a guess, and that should be their decision -- not one made by a court forcing them to do it. Then again, perhaps we should have considered this when we passed the ADA. Of course, I doubt anyone in Congress wanted to stand up against a law helping the disabled. Or maybe we should consider that Congress has a disability in its inability to see the consequences of badly drafted legislation.