A federal judge in San Francisco is allowing a lawsuit involving Web access for blind consumers to go forward.

The suit concerns blind people's access to Target Corp.'s Web site. The National Federation of the Blind, its California affiliate and a University of California-Berkeley student filed suit in February. The plaintiffs allege that Target.com's inaccessibility to the blind constitutes discrimination and violates the federal ADA and California's Unruh Civil Rights Act and Disabled Persons Act.

“Both federal and state laws are clear that any good or service of a place of public accommodation is required to be made accessible on equal terms to people with disabilities,” said plaintiffs' counsel Josh Konecky, a partner at Schneider & Wallace in a statement.

When allowing the suit to proceed, the judge dismissed the defense's argument that civil rights laws don't apply because the Web site is not a physical space.

“[T]o limit the ADA to discrimination in the provision of services occurring on the premises of a public accommodation would contradict the plain language of the statute,” U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel wrote.

The lawsuit has the potential to affect e-commerce on a national level. If the judge decides in favor of the plaintiffs, any company with an Internet presence may have to alter its Web site to make it accessible to the blind. This would entail implanting invisible alt-text into graphics so that screen readers that the blind use to navigate the Internet can read out what is pictured. It would also mean companies that sell merchandise on the Internet would have to allow buyers to make purchases without the use of a mouse.

Currently, the judge will not force Target to make such changes to its Web site within 90 days as the plaintiffs had requested.