I've noticed a troubling trend by those opposed to Target being forced to make their site more accessible conveniently ignoring the repeated posting of the quote by Tim Berners-Lee who invented the World Wide Web. WAI/WCUG came about not as an after thought to make the web useful to blind or disabled users, but because developers were failing to take the time to understand how to properly impliment user HTML specifications in the first place.

FROM THE VERY BEGINNING, the WWW and HTML specifications were designed and intended to help level the playing field for ALL users such that a site could be as accessible by a blind person as it was a sighted person. Back in 1995 my mentor took great pains to teach me the logic behind HTML and how to properly structure HTML documents to make them logical to all users regardless of whether or not they used a graphical browser like Mosaic a text reader like Lynx or a dynamic Braille display.

The problem is that most people who have become "web developers", most early HTML generating programs and most HTML instructors NEVER took the time to understand how HTML was supposed to be used and the theories behind HTML. If people had been trained to properly use HTML from the beginning and WYSIWYG HTML editors like FrontPage, Dreamweaver, etc. had been designed with HTML theories in mind, the accessibility issues with Target's website would not exist and Target would not be in the place they are now.

IF YOU TRULY BELIEVE THAT IT IS UNREASONABLE TO EXPECT TARGET TO GO BACK AND DESIGN THEIR SITE PROPERLY THE WAY IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN THE FIRST PLACE WITHOUT WAI/WCUG BEING IN PLACE THEN YOU SHOULD GET OUT OF THE BUSINESS OF WEB DESIGN/DEVELOPMENT! Web developers should have a working theoretical understanding of HTML structure and why each HTML tag exists and how it was intended to be used.

The fact that in 2006 the vast majority of websites still do not validate to the most basic level of HTML/CSS specifications is a sign of how sloppy and ignorant most web developers are. I blame this on the schools that teach HTML, I blame it on WYSIWYG editors making people lazy and I blame this on the HTML developers themselves for not taking the time to learn their trade.

Web development is a specialized skill set. There should be EVERY EXPECTATION that anyone who does web development professionally will have the basic skill sets required to do the job right the first time around. If you do not have the technical knowledge to know how to write HTML/CSS code without the assistance of a WYSIWYG editor like Dreamweaver or FrontPage and you are calling yourself a professional web developer, either go back to school and learn the fundamentals or get out of this business! I am not saying you have to use a text editor to do all of your web development, but I am saying you should be as comfortable writing valid code in a text editor as you are using your favorite WYSIWYG editor.

People get your heads out of the sand. Target's issues boil down to very simple web development best practices that existed from the very day Tim Berners-Lee released the very first HTML specification. From day one Tim Berners-Lee had intended the WWW to be accessible by everyone regardless of physical abilities.

The web was NEVER intended to be the sole domain of those who had sight and could use a mouse. This doesn't mean that people are expected to make every Flash game completely usable to the visually impaired, nor does it mean you have to write out complete dissertations describing every image on your site. What it does mean is that if you are going to use images as navigational elements or to present really critical concepts (like what the product is you are selling) then you need to provide alternative text. What it does mean that if you are going to use a server side image map you need to provide alternative forms of navigation. It also means that you had better make sure someone isn't forced to use a mouse to click on form submit buttons. The "web developers and designers" who developed Target's site should be ashamed of what they produced and they bring shame upon the profession of web development.