Tender Leaf Toys Website Accessibility with Screen Readers Class Action

As Americans perform more and more of their everyday activities online, it becomes more important that blind or visually-impaired persons have full access to websites. The complaint for this class action alleges that the website for Tender Leaf Toys, www.tenderleaftoys.com, contain numerous barriers to use by those who use screen readers. It brings suit under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

The class for this action is all visually-impaired or legally blind individuals in the US who have tried to access the Tender Leaf Toys website and have been denied access to the equal enjoyment of goods offered there between August 16, 2019 and August 16, 2022. A New York City Subclass has also been defined for all those in the above class in the City of New York.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have estimated the number of the blind in the US at 1.7 million. The number of New Yorkers with vision difficulty has been said to be more than 388,000.

As these numbers have grown, the Internet has become more important for everyday uses, such as shopping, researching, banking, and other purposes. The complaint alleges, “Per a study by the MIT Technology Review published in 2018, the average American spends 23.6 hours of every week online.”

Blind and visually-impaired people can now use the Internet with the help of screen readers that speak out information on screens. But these only work if the information on the website can be put into text in a consistent manner.

The complaint alleges that the Tender Leaf Toys website presents numerous difficulties when used with screen readers. For example, the complaint alleges that it does not allow users to add items to their cart, and that at some times, it adds to the cart multiple items or items that the user is merely looking at. In other cases, the screen reader does not read the descriptions of items or does not read the title or name of the product. The complaint lists a number of these problems and points out that sighted people do not have these difficulties with this website.

The complaint alleges that the website is a “place of public accommodation” under the ADA of which all people should have equal enjoyment and no person should be discriminated against because of a disability. The complaint also cites a similar city law, the New York City Human Rights Law, which says that places of public accommodation cannot “refuse, withhold from or deny” full and equal enjoyment to any person.

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Civil Rights
Tags: Accessibility, Americans with Disabilities Act, Blind or Visually Impaired, Civil Rights