User:Naquach/National Federation of the Blind v. Target

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The Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law in 1990 with the intent of eliminating discrimination on the basis of disability. Some of the protections listed in the ADA for people with disabilities include the rights to equal use and enjoyment of places of public accommodations as non disabled people. Each title of the ADA provides people with disabilities different protections, Title III of the ADA is intentionally designed to forbid “discrimination against persons on the basis of disability in the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations of any place of public accommodation by any person who owns, leases, or operates a place of public accommodation.” Under the ADA, “places of public accommodations” is defined as a place that is operated by a private entity which can be categorized into twelve groups. Some of these categories public entities cover include restaurants, parks, hospitals, museums, offices, theaters, hotels and stores.

Since the Americans with Disabilities Act was enacted before the internet existed, the term “public accommodation” has been historically interpreted as a physical place. The ADA does not clearly address accessibility to the internet for people with disabilities, as well as not clearly defining “public accommodations” as physical places. Both the statue and the regulations implementing Title III by the Department of Justice do not mention the internet. From Congress broad definition of “public accommodations” and the internet being a new concept during the time the ADA was passed, issues on accessibility to the internet have become new and controversial. With little clarity from Congress and a lack of case law analyzing internet accessibility issues, has caused the accessibility to the internet to remain an unresolved issue. National Federation of the Blind v. Target Corp has become one of the most recent court cases that has addressed and analyzed this issue.