NBC Class Action Filed Over Lack of Website Screen-Reading Software

A website user hit NBC with a class action lawsuit claiming that the company’s website is inaccessible to the visually impaired because it is incompatible with screen readers.

Plaintiff Luc Burbon says she is a legally blind person who requires the use of screen-reading software to use the internet.

Burbon claims to have attempted to visit NBC’s website a number of times, the last time occurring in January 2018.

The NBC class action alleges that she encountered multiple barriers to access because the website was not compatible with screen readers. The plaintiff argues that as a result, she did not have full access to the website as a sighted person would, and that the website violates the Americans with Disabilities Act.

In the NBC website class action lawsuit, Burbon claims that screen readers are the only technology that gives visually impaired web users the same access to web information as sighted users, so visually impaired users do not have an alternative way to access websites that are not compatible with screen readers.

According to Burbon, the Americans with Disabilities Act requires companies to make accommodations that enable people with disabilities to have full and equal use of goods and services that non-disabled people have.

Burbon aims to hold NBCUniversal Media LLC, the owners of NBC.com accountable for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act.

She seeks damages on behalf of herself and all other similarly affected visually impaired website users, and seeks a permanent injunction requiring NBC to make its website accessible to people with disabilities.

The plaintiff also seeks an admission from NBC that the company operates its website in a way that discriminates against people who are visually impaired.

The NBC website class action lawsuit aims to certify a nationwide Class of visually impaired users of the NBC website, and subclasses of visually impaired users of the NBC website who live in New York state and New York City. 

Allegedly, the website is not compatible with screen readers in such a way that prevented Burbon from accessing information about live and recent episodes of broadcasted shows, and information about purchasing tickets to live events including tapings of shows.

The NBC ADA class action lawsuit says that the website is incompatible with screen readers because it lacks Alternative Text (alt text), that screen readers read to interpret images on a website.

Alternative text is text embedded into website code that describes images, enabling a screen reader to read a description of an image so a visually impaired person can access the information conveyed in an image.

The NBC screen reading class action lawsuit goes on to say that the website also includes multiple empty links that do not navigate away from the page and redundant links that do not navigate to unique pages, and argues that such links can cause confusion for screen readers.

Earlier this year, Burbon filed a similar ADA class action lawsuit against Fox News, also claiming that Fox’s website was inaccessible to visually impaired users.

Burbon is represented by Avi A. Naveh of the Law Office of Avi A. Naveh, and Jeffrey M. Gottlieb and Dana L. Gottlieb of Gottlieb & Associates.

The NBC Website Americans with Disabilities Act Violation Class Action Lawsuit is Luc Burbon v. NBCUniversal Media LLC, Case No. 1:18-cv-09210, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.