ADA Website Accessibility Lawsuit: an online home goods and furniture retailer

Plaintiff Thuy Thanh Alonzo has filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Central District of California on September 7, 2021, against an online home goods and furniture retailer. The complaint, filed by Wilshire Law Firm, alleges that the defendant's e-commerce website is not fully accessible to blind and visually-impaired individuals, in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and California's Unruh Civil Rights Act.

The lawsuit identifies numerous accessibility barriers on the defendant's digital platform, including a lack of alternative text for non-text elements and linked images, missing title frames with text for identification and navigation, and an absence of equivalent text for scripts. Further issues include forms that lack the same information and functionality for sighted and non-sighted users, content where meaning and structure are not conveyed beyond visual presentation, and text that cannot be resized up to 200 percent without loss of functionality. Other identified barriers involve content with enforced time limits that cannot be extended or disabled, web pages without descriptive titles, and link purposes that cannot be determined from text or context. Additionally, the online platform reportedly suffers from issues with keyboard operability, discernible keyboard focus indicators, non-programmatically determined default human language, and changes in context upon focus without user advisement. It also includes user interface components that automatically change context, missing labels or instructions for user input, and markup language errors such as incomplete tags, improper nesting, duplicate attributes, or non-unique IDs, along with inaccessible Portable Document Format (PDFs) and problems with programmatically determining the name and role of User Interface elements.

This class action highlights significant legal risks for businesses operating digital platforms that fail to comply with ADA Title III and state-level accessibility laws. Such non-compliance can lead to demands for permanent injunctive relief, requiring extensive website modifications, and potentially substantial statutory damages, attorneys' fees, and costs. The case underscores the importance of proactive WCAG 2.1 guideline adherence to ensure equal access for all users and mitigate exposure to similar digital accessibility litigation.