Accessibility - Google News - Monday, October 29, 2018 at 9:07 AM
New York Wineries Sued over Website Accessibility for Visually Impaired
Lawsuits accuse wineries like Long Island’s Wölffer Estate of violating the
Americans with Disabilities Act
[Wölffer Estate on Long Island is one of 15 wineries facing a lawsuit over its
website.]
Photo by: Chuck Baker
Wölffer Estate on Long Island is one of 15 wineries facing a lawsuit over its
website.
More than a dozen New York State wineries on Long Island and in the Hudson
Valley are facing federal lawsuits, with plaintiffs claiming that the wineries'
websites violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by not being
accessible for the visually impaired.
The lawsuits, filed earlier this month by the Brooklyn-based Marks Law Firm on
behalf of its visually-impaired client Kathy Wu, claim that the lack of website
services like screen-reading software by 15 New York wineries, including
Wölffer
Estate<https://www.winespectator.com/wine/search?submitted=Y&search_by=exact&text_search_flag=winery&winery=W%C3%B6lffer+Estate>,
Bedell
Cellars<https://www.winespectator.com/wine/search?submitted=Y&search_by=exact&text_search_flag=winery&winery=Bedell>
and Channing
Daughters<https://www.winespectator.com/wine/search?submitted=Y&search_by=exact&text_search_flag=winery&winery=Channing+Daughters>,
discriminates against disabled customers.
“Approximately 8.1 million people in the United States are visually impaired,
including 2 million who are blind,” the complaints state, based on data from
the U.S. Census Bureau. “Approximately 400,000 visually impaired persons live
in the state of New York.”
Representatives from Wölffer Estate, Bedell Cellars and Channing Daughters
declined to comment on the pending litigation, as did staff at the Marks Law
Firm.
Lawsuit Reform Alliance public affairs manager Adam Morey said he’s noticed an
increasing trend of ADA Title III federal lawsuits filed against wineries and
other small businesses in the past year. A study conducted in July by the
Seyfarth Shaw Law Firm found that ADA lawsuits involving website accessibility
hit record numbers this year—4,965 federal ADA Title III lawsuits were filed in
the first six months of 2018 alone, according to the report, compared to the
7,663 that were filed for all of 2017. Of those 2018 suits, 1,026 were filed in
New York.
“There aren’t clear guidelines from the [U.S.] Department of Justice on how the
ADA applies to the Internet,” Morey told Wine Spectator. He believes law firms
are taking advantage of the unclear regulations. “New York has quickly become
the top jurisdiction for these lawsuits."
[https://www.winespectator.com/contentimage/wso/Articles/2018/NS_ADA102918B_540.jpg]
A lawsuit argues that Bedell Cellars' website is violating the Americans with
Disabilities Act by not being accessible for the visually impaired.
A Department of Justice spokesman told Wine Spectator that the department is
still evaluating whether specific web-accessibility standards are necessary to
ensure compliance with the ADA. More recently, the department has opted to
refer to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines created by the World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C) as a compatible set of online-compliance standards.
New York courts have adapted and ordered businesses to comply with those
standards in similar cases, such as a 2017 lawsuit involving Blick Art
Materials, LLC and a visually-impaired customer. The guidelines suggest
websites implement features like screen-reading software as well as make color,
word spacing and text size customizable to website visitors.
Chris Danielsen, director of public relations for the National Federation of
the Blind, offers another solution. He recommends that wineries and other
businesses with online platforms work directly with visually-impaired consumers.
“It basically incorporates human testing into the process of making a website
accessible,” Danielsen said. “We are willing to work with companies on this, so
that the website is not only technically accessible, but it’s actually working
well for blind consumers.”
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https://www.winespectator.com/webfeature/show/id/New-York-Wineries-Sued-over-Website-Accessibility
David Goldfield
Assistive Technology Specialist
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WWW.DavidGoldfield.info<http://WWW.DavidGoldfield.info>
