New York & Company Class Action Says Website Violates ADA

A New York & Company class action lawsuit accuses the clothing retailer of failing to make their website available to the visually impaired.

Plaintiff Marion Kiler says the company is blocking access to goods and services that are provided by New York & Company to non-visually impaired customers due to the current structure of the website.

The New York & Company class action lawsuit alleges that the website cannot be navigated by a blind or visually impaired person, therefore it is completely blocking a person with such a disability from being able to participate in the normal activities of commerce.

The plaintiff states that there are many access barriers present on the New York & Company website that essentially renders it unusable to a person who is visually impaired.

The NY&C class action argues that this excludes the blind from equal and full participation in the increasingly-important internet economy.

The New York & Company website class action lawsuit says that because of the many access barriers present that make the website impossible to navigate for the blind that there is no way for someone with a visual impairment to shop or purchase products online.

Kiler argues in the lawsuit that this is a civil rights class action due to New York & Company’s failure to maintain, design, construct, or own a website that can be easily navigated by the blind.

As pointed out in the New York & Company class action lawsuit, the access barriers block the use of assistive computer technology, the tool and system typically used by someone with a visual impairment to be able to navigate the website.

The NY&C class action lawsuit states that with more than 8.1 million people in the U.S. who are visually impaired and 2 million of them blind that the defendant has a responsibility to ensure the website can be accessed and used.

The lawsuit names several types of tools often used to make websites navigable to the visually impaired such as accessible forms, resizable text, alternative text, and descriptive links.

The New York & Company class action, however, says that the retailer has instead chosen to rely almost entirely on a visual interface that limits a user’s ability to move through the website with assistive technology.

Kiler says these practices violate the rights of access to disabled users in violation of existing laws.

The New York & Company class action lawsuit seeks to represent a nationwide Class of all legally blind people in the U.S. who have attempted to navigate the website of the defendant and have been unable to do so. The plaintiff also seeks certification of a New York subclass.

Kiler is represented by C.K. Lee and Anne Seelig of Lee Litigation Group PLLC.

The New York & Company Website Class Action Lawsuit is Marion Kiler v. New York & Company Stores Inc., Case No. 1:19-cv-00851-ENV-RML, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.