ADA Website Accessibility Lawsuit: an Acai bowl retailer

Thuy Thanh Alonzo, represented by WILSHIRE LAW FIRM, has filed a class action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Central District of California on October 27, 2021. The plaintiff alleges that a food and beverage retailer's website is not fully and equally accessible to blind and visually impaired individuals, constituting violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and California's Unruh Civil Rights Act.

The complaint details numerous accessibility barriers, including a lack of alternative text for images and non-text elements, which prevents screen-reading software from vocalizing descriptions. Other alleged violations include missing title frames for navigation, an absence of equivalent text for scripts, forms that do not provide the same information and functionality for visually impaired users, and text that cannot be resized without loss of content. The website also reportedly fails to provide discernible keyboard focus indicators, lacks programmatically determined link purposes, contains inaccessible Portable Document Format (PDF) files, and does not properly define the name and role of all User Interface elements for assistive technology.

This lawsuit highlights the ongoing legal risks for online businesses that fail to ensure their digital platforms are accessible to users with disabilities. The plaintiff seeks a permanent injunction to mandate that the defendant's website be modified to comply with WCAG 2.1 guidelines, preventing continued denial of services to blind and visually impaired consumers and mitigating potential liability under federal and state accessibility laws for an Acai bowl retailer and similar businesses.