Gwyneth Paltrow’s exceptionally successful lifestyle brand Goop is one of the latest celebrity-owned websites to face an accessibility lawsuit. The brand has been accused of not providing equal access to blind and visually impaired users. The lawsuit has been filed by a woman named Brittney Mejico, who is completely blind. 

Mejico claims that despite trying to navigate the website several times, she was unable to access it completely or enjoy its services. She has asked for preliminary and permanent injunction in the lawsuit filing requiring Goop to take the necessary steps to optimize their website accessibility for blind and visually impaired users.

Brittney Mejico has admitted to the fact that even though she is a tester, she is a fan of Goop and its products. She genuinely wanted to buy Goop’s products from their website when she faced accessibility issues.

A tester is a person with disabilities who visits public places of accommodation to determine whether they are compliant with the Title III of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990. Mejico says that she is motivated to continue her work to advocate equality and accessibility for blind users.

That is why she wants to ensure that Goop’s commercial website is completely accessible and usable for visually impaired users like her. She points out that according to the recent census, almost 8 million Americans suffer from visual impairments.

Brittney Mejico claims depriving blind users of equal accessibility to websites is similar to allowing American businesses to consider them as second-class citizens and thereby segregate them from the rest of American Society. She has claimed almost $ 75,000 as statutory damages and attorney fees in the lawsuit. We are guessing that Gwyneth Paltrow is probably not aware of the accessibility issues on her website.

She is not the only celebrity to be had by accessible the lawsuits in the recent past. Khloe Kardashian’s apparel brand named good American has also been sued by a person named Robert Wendt over visual accessibility issues.

Wendt also claimed that he felt like being treated as a second-class American citizen. In 2019, Beyoncé’s company called Parkwood entertainment received a class-action lawsuit filed by a blind woman from New York.

Businesses owned by celebrities are not the only recipients of accessibility lawsuits in the last few years. 2018 and 2019 saw record high cases of digital accessibility lawsuits in America. Even though the number of lawsuits dropped a little due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, it quickly rose back up again.

The subsequent months saw a gradual rise in the number of lawsuits, and the growth culminated in an almost 50% increase in December compared to the pre-pandemic months. Many American businesses and legal firms started assuming that the graph of accessibility lawsuits has started to flatten in 2020.

However, there has been an increase of 23% in the number of web accessibility lawsuits in 2020. The year saw a total of 3550 ADA lawsuits as opposed to 2890 in 2019.

The majority of the ADA lawsuits in 2020 were directed towards desktop websites, and there is a noticeable trend towards claims related to video content. It seems that American companies are relying too much on automated captions and audio descriptions for their video content on websites.

These automatically generated accessibility solutions are often far from accurate, which would explain the rising trend of lawsuits targeted at video content on websites. Even though visual problems remain the primary reason for digital accessibility lawsuits, audio accessibility is the third most cited reason behind the claims.

The sector most affected by digital accessibility lawsuits in 2020 was retail and e-commerce, which faced almost 80% of the cases. The second-most cited sector was the restaurant industry, as it was involved in 8% of the ADA lawsuits.

Education and entertainment cases accounted for 2.45% and 1.44% respectively. The banking and finance sector received 1.38% of the cases, whereas the insurance industry faced 1.32%.

It is surprising to know that most of the business websites in America do not even meet the WCAG 2.0 standards, which are the predecessors of current requirements. A lot of these businesses hide behind the ambiguity of the ADA concerning website accessibility.

However, it is common knowledge that the American judicial system considers WCAG2.1 as the minimal requirement for legal  ADA compliance. Many business owners also plead that redeveloping their websites from scratch requires a considerable amount of funds.

However, several court judges have deecmed that a non-excusable reason, especially since there are quite a few inexpensive and easy solutions available in the market. Before accessibility  software like accessiBe existed, meeting the ADA compliance requirements was a complicated affair indeed.

However, the modern AI-powered solutions can make any website accessible within a few hours so the business can avoid expensive lawsuits. The software scan, analyze, and adjust any accessibility issues present on an existing website. These automated solutions are also quite cost-effective, which makes them ideal for small business owners who cannot afford the legal costs of a lawsuit.

The constant rise of website accessibility lawsuits is a disheartening trend. It shines a light on the fact that many American businesses are not bothered about creating accessible and inclusive digital experiences.

But on the other hand, these lawsuits are also responsible to make other business owners aware of the dangers of hosting an inaccessible business website. We hope that 2021 will see a better digital landscape with regards to web accessibility.