Sears Class Action Claims Website Violates ADA

Sears has been hit with a class action lawsuit by a visually-impaired customer claiming the company’s website is not accessible to those with disabilities.

Plaintiff Jon R. Morgan says he is legally blind and suffers from a “qualified disability” under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). Morgan says he requires screen-reading software to read website information on his computer.

The plaintiff maintains that the Sears website at SearsOutlet.com is not accessible to blind and visually-impaired customers and violates the ADA. The website contains access barriers that make it difficult for blind and visually-impaired individuals to complete a transaction, the plaintiff alleges.

Morgan says he last visited the website in February and encountered numerous barriers that denied him the full ability of browsing the website.

The plaintiff claims he was searching for Bluetooth speakers, but was unable to have the same shopping experience as that of a sighted individual because of the website’s lack of features and accommodations. Morgan also alleges he was not able to see what products were available on the screen because the website does not adequately describe its content.

The Sears class action states that he has made numerous attempts to complete a transaction on the Sears website but has not been able to do so because of the access barriers inherent on the site.

Also, the plaintiff claims the website contains numerous broken links which makes it difficult for those who are visually impaired to navigate the website once a broken link is accessed.

The website reportedly does not have a label element or title attribute for each field, which describes what appears on each website page. Not having these elements can be inconvenient for people with disabilities because the screen reader cannot transmit the purpose of the page, according to Morgan. 

“These access barriers effectively denied Plaintiff the ability to use and enjoy Defendant’s website the same way sighted individuals do,” the Sears class action lawsuit argues.

Morgan says if the Sears website was equally accessible to everyone, he would be able to independently navigate the website and finish a desired transaction.

Screen-reading software reads the text on the website out loud so that the person using it can hear what is being displayed on the website, states the Sears class action lawsuit. In order to function properly, the content on a website allegedly must be capable of being furnished into text. If the website information is not capable of being transferred into text, the visually-impaired user is not able to access the same material as sighted users.

The plaintiff seeks a permanent injunction which would make a change in Sears’s corporate policies, practices, and procedures so that the website will become accessible to blind and visually-impaired consumers.

Potential Class Members include: “All legally blind individuals in the United States who have attempted to access Defendant’s Website and as a result have been denied access to the equal enjoyment of goods and services, during the relevant statutory period.”

Are you visually-impaired and have trouble accessing web pages? Leave a message in the comments section below.

The plaintiff is represented by Jonathan Shalom of Shalom Law PLLC.

The Sears Website Class Action Lawsuit is Jon R. Morgan v. Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores Inc., Case No. 1:20-cv-01698, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

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