ADA Website Accessibility Lawsuit: Online Restaurant Services

Brett DeSalvo, represented by WILSHIRE LAW FIRM, filed an ADA Title III lawsuit against an online restaurant in the United States District Court for the Central District of California on February 09, 2021. The plaintiff, a visually impaired and legally blind individual, alleges that the restaurant's website is not fully and equally accessible to blind and visually impaired consumers.

The complaint details numerous accessibility barriers on the business's website, including a lack of alternative text for non-text elements and linked images, missing title frames for identification and navigation, and an absence of equivalent text when using scripts. It further details issues such as forms not providing the same information and functionality for visually impaired users, content meaning conveyed solely through visual presentation, and text that cannot be resized without functionality loss. Additional barriers include enforced time limits without user control, web pages lacking descriptive titles, and link purposes that are not discernible to screen readers. The user interface also suffers from problems with keyboard operability, focus indicators, and programmatically determined language and UI elements, alongside markup language errors and inaccessible PDF documents.

This case underscores the significant legal exposure for businesses operating digital platforms that fail to comply with accessibility standards such as WCAG 2.1. Similar entities risk federal and state lawsuits, including demands for permanent injunctive relief, compliance consulting, and monetary damages, if their online services are not equally accessible to individuals with disabilities.