Amazon.com Inc. has been hit with a class action lawsuit alleging that the company’s website is inaccessible to blind users, violating the Americans with Disabilities Act and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

Plaintiff Cedric Bishop, a legally blind Amazon user, alleges that the company’s website is inaccessible to blind and visually impaired users because it is incompatible with website readers and refreshable Braille displays.

He claims that Amazon’s failure to make its website accessible to blind readers violates the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and ADA requirements.

Bishop, like many visually impaired web users, uses an audible screen reader to use the internet. Bishop says that screen-reading software is the only technology available that allows visually impaired people to use the internet.

According to the Amazon class action lawsuit, Amazon.com violates the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines in not providing a text equivalent for every non-text element on its site that a screen reader can read as text to the user. The Amazon class action lawsuit argues that additionally, there is no equivalent text provided for title frames and scripts. This renders the website unusable by visually impaired visitors to the website.

Bishop says that the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are “universally followed by most large business entities and government agencies to ensure their websites are accessible,” and that “many courts have also established [the guidelines] as standard guideline for accessibility.”

The Amazon class action lawsuit argues that Amazon’s practice of not making its website compatible with web reading tools is discriminatory, as established by the ADA, which states that “no individual shall be discriminated against on the basis of disability in the full and equal enjoyment of goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations of any place of public accommodation.”

The inaccessible Amazon website class action lawsuit argues that visually impaired users “have been and are still being denied equal access to Defendant’s retail stores and the numerous goods, services, and benefits offered to the public through the Website.”

Bishop also argues that Amazon’s inaccessible website renders him unable to access not only Amazon’s website, but Whole Foods stores, as Whole Foods is a company that Amazon recently acquired.

According to Bishop, he is unable to research the store’s products and opening hours on the company’s website. He argues that he cannot take advantage of such services as the ability to return Amazon products to his local Whole Foods location and other retailers contracted with Amazon, because he cannot research the service sufficiently online.

The plaintiff wants Amazon to comply with ADA requirements by making its website accessible to visually impaired users and seeks damages on behalf of himself and all similarly affected consumers.

Bishop is represented by Joseph H. Mizrahi of Joseph H. Mizrahi Law PC and Jeffrey M. Gottlieb and Dana L. Gottlieb of Gottlieb & Associates.

The Amazon.com Inaccessibility Class Action Lawsuit is Cedric Bishop v. Amazon.com Inc., Case No. 1:18-cv-00973, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

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