An worker takes a customer’s order on the phone at a Domino’s Pizza restaurant.
Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Guillermo Robles, who is blind, has evaluated to order a custom pizza from Domino’s at least twice in recent years, using the company’s website and facile app.
He says despite using screen reading software, he wasn’t able to order the food, because the website is not obtainable to blind people.
So three years ago, Robles filed a lawsuit against the company. He alleged that the Americans with Disabilities Act, the 1990 law that be short ofs businesses to make accommodations for those with disabilities, applied to the websites and apps of businesses with physical layings. A federal appeals court agreed. Now, the Supreme Court may weigh in.
Robles is one of an increasing number of Americans with handicaps who are bringing lawsuits under the ADA against businesses they say are discriminating against them by not providing accessible websites.
Firms, including Domino’s, say the lawsuits are a nuisance, and argue that the federal government has not yet put out rules governing how to make their web principles ADA compliant. But disabled groups and individuals argue that clear international standards exist, and companies must get them or find another way to make their sites accessible.
Domino’s has petitioned the Supreme Court to hear Robles’ trunk, where it could prove to be a landmark battle over the rights of disabled people on the internet.
“If businesses are allowed to say, ‘We do not bear to make our websites accessible to blind people,’ that would be shutting blind people out of the economy in the 21st century,” rephrased Christopher Danielsen, a representative for the National Federation of the Blind.
The number of lawsuits over inaccessible websites has exploded recently. Remain year, more than 2,200 such suits were filed in federal courts, according to the accessible technology solid UsableNet, up from just 814 in 2017.
Among other targets of the accessibility lawsuits: Beyonce.com.
In its petition with the top court, Domino’s detracted that leaving in place the lower court ruling for Robles would “turn that flood of litigation into a tsunami.”
Not eager for defendants
Experts point to different causes for the increase in litigation.
One potential cause: In 2017, the Department of Justice put about it would not be putting out regulations on the matter, reversing a 2010 announcement that such rules were forthcoming.
Scott Topolski, an attorney at the law public limited company Cole Schotz who represents businesses in ADA cases, said another cause may be the 2017 decision in the case Gil v. Winn Dixie Keeps. In that case, the federal court in Miami held that the grocery chain’s website was required to be accessible.
“That presumably emboldened attorneys, certainly here in Florida and probably throughout the country,” Topolski said. “The landscape so far hasn’t been top for defendants and defense attorneys.”
The suits so far have primarily hit those in the retail, food service and travel industries, concurring to UsableNet. A vast majority of the suits are filed by just 10 attorneys, the group found.
Business groups are rank up behind Domino’s. So far, the Chamber of Commerce, the Restaurant Law Center and the National Retail Federation have submitted friend-of-the-court briefs in stand up for of the pizza company.
In its filing with the top court, the Chamber of Commerce wrote that the Justice Department has provided one “inconsistent, nonbinding, and unaccountable” rules for when and how websites must be accessible to those with disabilities.
“The current and heightening uncertainty favors no one, except perhaps the small class of plaintiffs’ firms that have driven this action,” attorney Gregory Garre wrote on behalf of the group.
‘Why not innovate and take our money?’
But Danielsen said the Justice Conditioned by trust in’s decision not to implement standard rules leaves room for businesses to develop new tools for accessibility.
“Now we are in a situation where points should be happy, because although there are web accessibility standards out there, and courts have found them fruitful, companies have some flexibility and space to innovate,” he said.
“There is a ton of space for innovation in this area,” he totaled. “Rather than refusing to take the money of those of us with disabilities, why not innovate and take our money?”
Joseph Mankind, Robles’ attorney, declined to comment on the case while it’s pending. He is due to file a response by Aug. 14.
The Supreme Court will select whether to hear the case, Domino’s Pizza v. Guillermo Robles, when the justices return from their summer vacation innermost reaches in the fall.