Posted by Harlan Messinger on 10/04/07 17:02

Harlan Messinger wrote:
> Robert Maas, see http://tinyurl.com/uh3t wrote:
>> Their Web site for applying for employment is inaccessible to
>> low-income disabled people who are most in need of jobs.
>> Is there any lawyer in the audience who will help me sue them?
>
> For the record, I just ran most of the way through the on-line
> application for hourly store employees and observed just one real
> barrier that would take about a minute to fix, and one nuisance.
>
> I accomplished the entire thing by keyboard. All information is
> communicated in text. There is no flashing, no scrolling or limited-time
> display. Color is not used to convey information.
> [snip]
> So that's it. One problem that would be extremely easy to fix, and one
> possible problem that could be worked out differently. One might wonder
> why Toys R Us, if someone were to put them on notice about this,
> wouldn't make this simple effort rather than be exposed even to
> complaints, let alone legal action.

Another issue I just noticed when attempting to use the site with Lynx:
*overuse* of alt text. The author evidently doesn't understand that the
alt attribute should be left empty UNLESS the image is conveying
substantive information. This site is littered with the names of image
files and references to "spacer" that should be eliminated.

Finally, my Lynx client doesn't support https (secure http), and the
application area communicates using https, so I was unable to get to the
application with Lynx. Establishing secure communication for an
interaction that involves transmission of personal information is
important. If it turns out that the reason the OP's can't get to the job
information and application is because his browser doesn't support
https, well, yes, that's a barrier, but it isn't unreasonable to require
that users have a browser that supports https because security of the
consideration is a bona fide necessity.

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