ADA Website Accessibility Lawsuit: An Online Sports Apparel Company
Plaintiff's Firm: LAW OFFICE OF AMANDA BENEDICT
Case Summary
Plaintiff Richard Cooks, represented by the LAW OFFICE OF AMANDA BENEDICT, filed a class action complaint in the United States District Court for the Central District of California on January 17, 2020. The lawsuit targets an online sports apparel company, alleging its website is not fully and equally accessible to blind and visually-impaired individuals.
The complaint details numerous WCAG violations, including the absence of alternative text for graphical images, missing label elements or title attributes for form fields, and the presence of broken links. Further alleged issues include a lack of text equivalents for non-text elements, unclear link purposes, and the omission of descriptive page titles and headings. The website reportedly lacks a visible keyboard focus indicator, programmatically determined language settings, and proper labels or instructions for user input, among other critical accessibility failures affecting screen reader users.
This legal action highlights the ongoing risks for online businesses, particularly e-commerce platforms and other public accommodations, that fail to adhere to digital accessibility standards under Title III of the ADA and California's Unruh Civil Rights Act. Such non-compliance can lead to significant litigation, requiring injunctive relief, statutory damages, and attorneys' fees to remediate inaccessible online content and services.
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Case Q&A
What specific WCAG violations is this online sports apparel company accused of?
The online sports apparel company is accused of numerous WCAG violations, including missing alt text for images, lack of label elements or title attributes for form fields, broken links, no text equivalents for non-text elements, unclear link purposes, missing page titles and descriptive headings, and a non-visible keyboard focus indicator.
Who filed this lawsuit, and which law firm?
Richard Cooks filed this lawsuit, represented by the LAW OFFICE OF AMANDA BENEDICT.
What legal risk does this create?
This creates a legal risk for other online public accommodations that fail to maintain accessible websites, potentially leading to similar class action lawsuits, demands for injunctive relief to fix accessibility barriers, and significant financial liabilities including damages and attorneys' fees under the ADA and state civil rights laws.