Multiple universities targeted by the same plaintiff, plus a wedding specialist and bar franchisor face class actions

This week, Elon University is up against one of the country’s most prolific filers of ADA-related lawsuits, mobile accessibility is in the spotlight and a class action is brought against a wedding specialist.

Dozens of universities sued over website accessibility

The plaintiff in the lawsuit Emanuel Delacruz v Elon University has also filled dozens of other lawsuits based on accessibility for blind and visually impaired users. The assumption might be that Higher Education and university establishments have this in hand, but the reality is the risk of providing an inaccessible website is just as real for them as it is for other types of organisations.

https://www.elonnewsnetwork.com/article/2022/09/elon-among-dozens-of-universities-sued-over-website-accessibility (opens in a new window)

Emanuel Delacruz v. Elon University

https://embed.documentcloud.org/documents/22924458-govuscourtsnysd58410510/?embed=1&responsive=1&title=1 (opens in a new window)

Forced to use traditional brick and mortar retailers

When visiting the site of wedding specialist, Zola, the plaintiff in the class action against them found the following:

‘Zola.com contains significant access barriers that make it difficult if not impossible for blind and visually impaired customers to use the website.’

It was claimed that due to Zola’s inaccessibility the plaintiff and blind customers must ‘spend time, energy, and/or money to make their purchases at traditional brick-and mortar retailers’.

Jenny Hwang v. Zola, Inc.

https://topclassactions.com/disability-class-action-lawsuit/zola-class-action-claims-website-inaccessible-to-visually-impaired-blind-consumers/ (opens in a new window)

Don’t forget your mobile

The pending lawsuit that has been brought against bar franchisor Brass Tap, acts as a reminder to all that focus website development and compliance efforts on desktop at the expense of mobile devices.

In this case, it was stated that the plaintiff uses ‘the internet and a mobile device to help him navigate a world of goods, products and services like the sighted.’ However, when trying to navigate the site https://www.brasstapbeerbar.com (opens in a new window), found that the mobile site didn’t properly interact with his screen reader.

Watson v. Brass Tap Franchisor, LLC et al.