ADA Website Accessibility Lawsuit: an online confectionary retailer

Nataly Morales, represented by Wilshire Law Firm, filed a class action complaint in the United States District Court for the Central District of California on October 29, 2021, against an online confectionary retailer. The plaintiff, who is visually-impaired, alleges that the defendant's e-commerce website is not fully accessible to and independently usable by blind and visually-impaired individuals, thereby denying equal access to its products and services in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and California's Unruh Civil Rights Act.

The complaint details numerous WCAG violations, including a lack of alternative text for non-text elements and linked images, empty links with no descriptive text, redundant links, and the absence of text equivalents for scripts. Additionally, the website allegedly fails to provide title frames for identification and navigation, lacks information about content meaning and structure conveyed beyond visual presentation, and does not allow text resizing without functionality loss. Further issues involve time limits without user control, web pages without descriptive titles, unidentifiable link purposes, a lack of discernible keyboard focus indicators, undetermined default human language, and inaccessible forms and PDF documents.

This lawsuit highlights the significant legal exposure for e-commerce businesses that fail to ensure their websites are accessible to individuals with disabilities. Similar businesses risk class action litigation, potentially leading to court-ordered permanent injunctions requiring substantial website remediation to comply with WCAG 2.0/2.1 guidelines, as well as statutory minimum damages and attorneys' fees.