Paul Tassin  |  December 6, 2017

Category: Consumer News

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Nike LogoA New York woman says Nike is maintaining corporate websites that deny access to visually impaired users, in violation of federal and state civil rights laws.

Plaintiff Maria Mendizabal accuses defendant Nike Inc. of maintaining two corporate websites, Nike.com and Converse.com, that fail to give equal access to blind and visually impaired users. That lack of access means Nike is in violation of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act and several state and local laws that prohibit disability discrimination, Mendizabal argues.

Mendizabal uses the term “visually impaired” to refer to a person who has a corrected visual acuity of less than or equal to 20/200. Around 8.1 million people in the United States meet this definition, according to U.S. Census Bureau data, and around 400,000 of those live in Mendizabal’s home state of New York.

The Nike class action states that to use a website, visually impaired persons rely on screen-reading software that reads the website’s text out loud for the user to hear or renders it in a refreshable Braille display.

For that software to function, the website must be designed to work with it. Otherwise, Mendizabal says, the visually impaired user is denied use of the website.

Guidelines for designing an accessible website are published by the World Wide Web Consortium, according to this Nike class action lawsuit. Most large businesses and governmental entities follow these guidelines, Mendizabal says. Nike, however, does not conform to these requirements in the design of its websites, she claims.

According to Mendizabal, the Nike websites do not use alt-text to provide a text equivalent for every element that appears on the page. Without alt-text, screen reading software has no way to represent non-text elements to the user.

The user then can’t use the website for its intended purposes, such as reviewing information about products, ordering products online, and getting information about physical store locations and hours of operation.

Other barriers allegedly found on the Nike website include empty links that contain no text, redundant links that connect to the same pages as adjacent links, and linked images that have no alt-text.

Mendizabal says these barriers prevent visually disabled persons from getting the same use and enjoyment out of Nike products and services as sighted persons. She claims Nike is in violation of the ADA, New York’s Human Rights Law and Civil Rights Law, and the New York City Human Rights Law.

Mendizabal is proposing a plaintiff Class that would encompass all legally blind U.S. persons who attempted to access the Nike websites and as a result were denied access to equal enjoyment of goods and services at Nike’s physical locations during the applicable statutory period. She also proposes two subclasses to cover Class Members in New York State and New York City.

She seeks a court injunction that would force Nike to update its websites to remove the alleged barriers and bring the websites into compliance with applicable laws. She also seeks an award of damages, court costs and attorney fees, plus pre- and post-judgment interest.

Mendizabal is represented by attorneys Joseph H. Mizrahi of Joseph H. Mizrahi Law PC and by Jeffrey M. Gottlieb and Dana L. Gottlieb of Gottlieb & Associates.

The Nike Website ADA Class Action Lawsuit is Mendizabal v. Nike Inc., Case No. 1:17-cv-09498, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

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