anne

I have heard about web sites getting sued for having poor accesibility, how likely is this, and how important is it?

I can understand a site targetted at a general audience or providing information needing to be accessibile, but if your site is targetted at an audience that is unlikely to be visually or mobility impaired, does it still need to be a concern?

I try to design for accessibility anyway, because that tends to lead to sites that look better in all browsers, and work on handhelds also, but is it now something important from a legal standpoint?

ed

It is usually a Good Thing™ to have good accessibility. I really wouldn't be overly worried about being sued for it, for now at least. Unless, of course, you are a Fortune 500 company.

There is no reason to not make it accessible to as many people as possible. That's like saying, well 95% of my users use Internet Explorer, so I am only going to make my site work in IE. Why alienate anyone?

Paul

Depending on the size of your website I wouldn't worry about being sued. However I also wouldn't not try and make the site accessible. You can ask Target about how important it is to be accessible though. As I'm sure everybody has heard about their recent legal troubles in this area.

Super Mod

I've never heard of any company being sued for lacking accessibility. I can't believe Target was sued for that. Anyway, I think it's very important to conform to web standards. Not only will your website be (1) faster to load and (2) easier to modify, but it will also be able to be viewed through wireless technologies, the blind, and so forth. I would really recommend coding in at least XHTML Transitional if not XHTML Strict.