ADA Website Accessibility Lawsuit: Online Clothing Retailer
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 February 18, 2020. The lawsuit targets an online clothing company, alleging that its website is not fully and equally accessible to and independently usable by blind and visually-impaired individuals, in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Title III and California's Unruh Civil Rights Act.
The complaint details several specific accessibility barriers, including the lack of alternative text for graphical images, missing label elements or title attributes for fields, broken links, the absence of text equivalents for non-text elements, unclear link purposes, web pages lacking descriptive titles and headings, invisible keyboard focus indicators, unprogrammatically determined human languages, missing labels or instructions for user input, inability to resize text without loss of functionality, and no mechanism to bypass repeated content blocks. Additionally, issues with incorrect reading sequence, incomplete or improperly nested markup elements, and unprogrammatically determined UI element names and roles are cited.
This legal action underscores the imperative for all businesses, especially those operating e-commerce websites, to ensure their digital platforms comply with ADA Title III and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1 AA). Failure to implement accessible design can lead to costly litigation, including demands for injunctive relief, statutory damages, attorneys' fees, and court-ordered mandates for accessibility improvements, significantly impacting business operations and reputation.
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Case Q&A
What specific WCAG violations is this online clothing retailer accused of?
The online clothing retailer is accused of lacking alt text for images, missing label elements or title attributes for fields, broken links, absent text equivalents, unclear link purposes, pages without descriptive titles/headings, invisible keyboard focus indicators, text resizing issues, and problems with content reading sequence.
Who filed this lawsuit, and which law firm?
RICHARD COOKS filed this lawsuit, represented by LAW OFFICE OF AMANDA BENEDICT.
What legal risk does this create?
This creates a legal risk for businesses with websites that fail to provide full and equal access to visually impaired users, potentially leading to class action lawsuits, injunctions requiring website modifications, and statutory damages under ADA Title III and state civil rights laws.