ADA Website Accessibility Lawsuit: An Online Furniture Retailer
Plaintiff's Firm: WILSHIRE LAW FIRM
Case Summary
Plaintiff Thuy Thanh Alonzo has filed a class action lawsuit against an online furniture retailer in the United States District Court for the Central District of California on September 29, 2021. The complaint was filed by Wilshire Law Firm on behalf of visually-impaired individuals seeking to access the retailer's website and physical locations.
The lawsuit alleges numerous WCAG violations, including lack of alternative text for non-text elements and linked images, empty links without descriptive text, redundant links, forms with unequal functionality for sighted vs. visually-impaired users, content structure not conveyed by visual presentation, text that cannot be resized without loss of content, enforced time limits, missing web page titles, unclear link purposes, keyboard operable user interface lacking a discernible focus indicator, programmatically undetermined default human language, context changes initiated by focus or settings, missing labels/instructions for user input, markup errors, inaccessible Portable Document Format (PDFs), and UI elements lacking programmatically determined name/role or change notifications for assistive technology.
This action highlights significant legal risks for online retailers and similar businesses that fail to ensure their digital platforms are fully accessible to visually-impaired users under ADA Title III and California's Unruh Civil Rights Act, potentially leading to demands for injunctive relief to remediate accessibility barriers, statutory damages, and attorney's fees.
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Case Q&A
What specific WCAG violations is this online furniture retailer accused of?
The online furniture retailer is accused of lacking alternative text, having empty and redundant links, inaccessible forms, content structure issues, text resizing failures, enforced time limits, missing page titles, unclear link purposes, keyboard focus indicator failures, inaccessible PDFs, and various other UI element accessibility problems.
Who filed this lawsuit, and which law firm?
Plaintiff Thuy Thanh Alonzo filed this lawsuit, represented by Wilshire Law Firm.
What legal risk does this create?
This creates a legal risk for businesses operating websites that are not fully accessible to visually-impaired individuals, as it may result in class action lawsuits, demands for injunctive relief to remediate accessibility barriers, and statutory damages under both federal and state accessibility laws.