Martha Stewart Living Class Action Says Videos Need Closed Captions

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A New York plaintiff has initiated a Martha Stewart Living class action lawsuit alleging the media company is violating the rights of deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals via their website.

Access barriers allegedly make it difficult or impossible for someone deaf or hard-of-hearing to absorb information on the website, claims the Martha Stewart Living class action lawsuit.

The Martha Stewart Living class action lawsuit says that this behavior and in particular, the lack of appropriate access tools, blocks deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals from being able to participate in the increasingly important internet economy.

Plaintiff Phillip Sullivan Jr. who initiated the Martha Stewart Living class action lawsuit is a deaf man living in New York City. He filed the action against the defendant as a result of claims of failure to construct, design, or own a website that is fully usable and accessible to hard-of-hearing and deaf people.

The Martha Stewart Living class action lawsuit explains that more than 36 million people across the United States are hard of hearing or deaf, and that many of these consumers require captioning on videos in order to understand the audio being shared. The lawsuit claims that video content with no captions excludes hard-of-hearing or deaf people.

Closed captioning services are activated by the viewer that displays text on television programming, DVD movies, or online videos. This makes it possible for hard of hearing and deaf individuals to understand the content shared in videos.

These services show up similarly to subtitles in movies that allow people who are hard of hearing to consume the same content without issues.

Increasingly, argues the class action lawsuit, the internet marketplace is a place to do business and the lack of closed captioning services blocks the deaf and hard of hearing population in the United States from being able to access and consume the materials on sites as the rest of the population is able to do.

The Martha Stewart class action lawsuit argues that the technology to support closed caption videos is readily available, but the failure to consider this and to make use of it violates equal access rights under federal and state law.

The Martha Stewart Living class action lawsuit says that this violates the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Key issues in the Martha Stewart class action lawsuit will include whether or not the website is a public accommodation under the ADA and whether the defendant via the website denies equal and full enjoyment of services and goods in violation of the ADA.

The Martha Stewart ADA class action lawsuit seeks injunctive and declaratory relief to rectify the policies and practices of the defendant.

The plaintiff seeks nationwide certification for a Class of all legally hard of hearing and deaf individuals who have tried to access the Martha Stewart website and were denied access to the services and goods offered as a result of the access barriers.

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

The Martha Stewart Living Closed Captioning Class Action Lawsuit is Phillip Sullivan Jr. v. Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., Case No. 1:18-cv-08506, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.