Anyone reading the news, or at least the disability news, understands that so called emotional support animals for persons with mental disabilities are a big deal. The number of HUD complaints based on refusals to allow ESA’s is growing, and there is a booming industry filing complaints, selling fake service dog paraphernalia, and selling bogus diagnosis of disability. With all this going on, it might be reasonable to ask whether there is any evidence at all that ESA’s at home or on an airplane are really of any value at all to a person who is disabled. Despite the noise from animal advocates, the science doesn’t support their claims. More
Getting real – a step in the right direction for ADA claims
By Richard Hunt in Accessibility Litigation Trends, ADA - drive-by litigation, ADA - serial litigation, FHA Tags: ADA Fairness, ADA pleading, Drive-by ADA Plaintiffs, FHA Pleading, serial litigation
The usual elements of a complaint filed under the FHA and ADA are:
- A lengthy and unnecessary recital of the legislative history of the law, including all kinds of statements about the historical oppression of those with disabilities,
- A broad allegation that the plaintiff visited the defendant’s location, without details that might make the claim verifiable, and
- A series of broad statements about violations of the law that, once again, lack any detail that would make them verifiable.
Hello Amazon, and welcome to the world of ADA litigation.
By Richard Hunt in Accessibility Litigation Trends, ADA - drive-by litigation, ADA Internet, ADA Internet Web, ADA Web Access Tags: Amazon, internet accessibility, WCAG 2.0, website accessibility, Whole Foods acquisition
The major news outlets seem to have overlooked the most interesting aspect (to me) of Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods; that is, Amazon’s leap into the world of serial ADA filers and controversy over internet accessibility. Amazon has experimented with physical stores, but soon it will have hundreds of them in the U.S., and every one of them has some kind of ADA accessibility issue. That isn’t an accusation, but an assumption based on the highly technical requirements in the 2010 ADA Standards and the proven inability of even the most sophisticated organizations to control the hundreds or thousands of people whose jobs are not primarily related to accessibility to do what is required. Somebody’s going to stack boxes in a hallway, block a checkout counter, take too long to repair a vandalized accessible parking sign, or fail to notice a 10% slope where 8.3% is the maximum. Whole Foods has already been sued many times based on accessibility failures in its stores. More
Baby steps – the first post-trial decision on the ADA and the internet.
By Richard Hunt in Accessibility Litigation Trends, ADA Internet, ADA Internet Web
Yesterday, on June 13, Judge Robert Scola of the Southern District of Florida issued his opinion on website accessibility in Gil v. Winn Dixie Stores, Inc. Case No. 1:16-cv-23020 (SD Fla. June 13, 2017) He conducted a two day trial, but the outcome was inevitable after his earlier decision denying a motion to dismiss. In that decision Judge Scola adopted, in essence, the reasoning of Nat’l Fed’n of the Blind v. Target Corp., 452 F.Supp.2d 946 (N.D. Cal. 2006). Target held that if a website had a sufficient nexus with a physical place of business then it was covered by the ADA as a service of that public accommodation. This sidestepped the more theoretical question of whether a stand alone website is a public accommodation. It appears to have been undisputed that the Winn-Dixie website offered services related to its brick and mortar stores, so the trial in which evidence of that fact was put in the record was really just a formality. More
The interactive process under ADA Title III – maybe not the law, but a good idea anyway.
By Richard Hunt in Accessibility Litigation Trends, ADA Litigation Procedure, Interactive Process Tags: 8th Circuit, ada litigation, interactive process, Koester