Blind Man Sues Sugar Factory Over ‘Discriminatory’ Website

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Sugar Factory, LLC and Sugar Factory the Row, LLC are on the receiving end of a proposed class action lawsuit accusing them of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act and various state civil rights laws. The suit alleges that the defendants’ website, Sugarfactory.com, contains various access barriers that hinder blind individuals from freely navigating the site using screen reading technology. The plaintiff in the case, a blind New York resident, claims he attempted to purchase a gift card on the defendants’ website but was unable to complete the transaction in part because of the following access obstacles, among others:

• A lack of alt-text on graphics;
• Inaccessible drop-down menus;
• A lack of navigation links;
• A lack of adequate prompting and labeling;
• Denial of keyboard access;
• Empty links that contain no text;
• Redundant links where adjacent links go to the same URL address; and
• The requirement that transactions be performed solely with a mouse.

As a result of these supposed barriers, the complaint argues, blind individuals are unable to take advantage of the goods and services offered online by Sugar Factory. The suit claims that despite the existence of “readily available, well-established guidelines” for constructing accessible websites, the defendants have refused to remedy their allegedly discriminatory conduct.