ADA Website Accessibility Lawsuit: an online tanning and sun care products retailer

Mykayla Fagnani, a visually-impaired individual, initiated legal proceedings in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on June 21, 2025. This civil rights action targets an online retailer specializing in tanning and sun care products, alleging systemic failures in digital accessibility. The plaintiff contends that the defendant organization’s interactive website presents significant barriers, effectively denying blind and visually-impaired persons equitable access to its online offerings and associated information.

The core of the legal challenge highlights numerous deficiencies within the website’s design, directly impeding its usability by assistive technologies like screen readers. Specifically, the complaint identifies a pervasive absence of alternative text for graphical elements and linked images, rendering visual content opaque to blind users. Furthermore, issues such as missing text equivalents for non-text elements, the failure to provide informative title frames for navigation, and an inability for text to be resized without losing functionality underscore fundamental accessibility flaws. Other allegations include non-discernible keyboard focus indicators, unidentifiable default human languages, context changes initiated upon focus without user notification, and structural markup errors. The lawsuit further asserts problems with unlabeled user input fields, inaccessible PDF documents, and a general inability for user interface elements to be programmatically determined by assistive technologies. Empty and redundant links, alongside broken hyperlinks that fail to communicate their status, further contribute to a fragmented and exclusionary online experience for individuals relying on screen readers.

This filing underscores the escalating legal imperative for all businesses operating digital platforms to ensure full compliance with accessibility standards under ADA Title III and various state and local human rights laws, including New York's Human Rights Law and General Business Law § 349. The lawsuit seeks not only a permanent injunction to mandate comprehensive accessibility improvements but also significant compensatory and punitive damages, along with the recovery of attorneys' fees. Businesses that neglect to integrate universal design principles into their online infrastructure face considerable legal exposure, risking costly litigation and mandated overhauls to rectify discriminatory barriers that isolate disabled individuals from essential digital services and commerce.