Outback Class Action Says Website Discriminates Against the Blind

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A legally blind man has claimed in a proposed class action lawsuit that Outback Steakhouse’s website does not accommodate blind and visually impaired users.

Plaintiff Jose Del-Orden filed his discrimination lawsuit under the Americans with Disabilities Act on March 30 in New York federal court, specifically stating that Outback.com has many access barriers, preventing blind people to independently navigate and complete a purchase using assistive computer technology.

“The access barriers make it impossible for blind users to even complete a transaction on the website,” the complaint said. “Outback thus excludes the blind from the full and equal participation in the growing Internet economy that is increasingly a fundamental part of the common marketplace and daily living.”

The Outback website disability access lawsuit further alleges that the Australian-themed restaurant chain knowingly discriminated against the blind by choosing to maintain a website with an exclusively visual interface, including pop-up forms that are inaccessible to blind people. By failing to make the website accessible to blind persons, Outback is violating basic equal access requirements under both state and federal law, the lawsuit states.

Screen-reader technology provides the primary method by which a blind person may independently use the Internet. Unless Outback’s website is designed to be read by screen-reader software or other assistive technologies, blind individuals are unable to fully access websites and the information, products and services available through the site, Del-Orden’s complaint alleges.

The ADA states that the court can step in “to alter facilities to make such facilities readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities.” The act also authorizes judicially-mandated changes to an organization’s policies.

Del-Orden has asked for a court order that would require Outback to take all necessary steps to format its website to be compatible with the screen-reader, or text-to-audio, technology utilized by Web users with vision problems.

He seeks to represent a nationwide Class of legally blind individuals who have attempted to access Outback.com and as a result have been denied access to Outback services and goods, along with a subclass in New York. The putative class action lawsuit also requests monetary damages.

Del-Orden filed a similar lawsuit against Reebok International last year, which was settled for an undisclosed amount and subsequently dismissed.

Additional lawsuits claiming violations of the ADA have been filed by blind consumers against Deckers Outdoor Corp, the owner of Ugg boot brand, and footwear and specialty apparel retailer Genesco this year.

And just this month, in the first ruling for a blind plaintiff in a website disability access lawsuit, a California judge ordered luggage retailer Bag’N Baggage to pay $4,000 and make its website format compatible for blind consumers.

Del-Orden is represented by C.K. Lee and Anne Seelig of Lee Litigation Group PLLC.

The Outback Website Disability Access Class Action Lawsuit is Del-Orden v. Outback Steakhouse of Florida LLC, Case No. 1:16-cv-02319, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.