Plaintiff
- Name: Elia Haggar, Kyo Hak Chu, and Valerie Brooks
- Filing date: February 28, 2019
- State of filing: California
Defendant
- Name: Forever 21, Inc.
- Website: www.forever21.com/us/shop
- Industry: Apparel
- Summary: Forever 21, Inc. offers apparel, beauty products, and home and tech goods through its website and brick and mortar retail stores.
Case Summary
On February 28, 2019, Elia Haggar, Kyo Hak Chu, and Valerie Brooks filed a Complaint in California Federal court against Forever 21, Inc.. Plaintiff Elia Haggar, Kyo Hak Chu, and Valerie Brooks alleges that www.forever21.com/us/shop is not accessible per the WCAG 2.0 accessibility standard(s).
Case Details
Plaintiff alleges issues in its Complaint including the following:
While attempting to navigate Defendant’s website, Plaintiffs and Class Members encountered multiple accessibility barriers for blind or visually-impaired people that include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Lack of Alternative Text (“alt-text”), or a text equivalent. Alt-text is invisible code embedded beneath a graphic or image on a website that is read to a user by a screen-reader. For graphics or images to be fully accessible for screen-reader users, it requires that alt-text be coded with each graphic or image so that screen-reading software can speak the alt-text to describe the graphic or image where a sighted user would just see the graphic or image. Alt-text does not change the visual presentation, but instead a text box shows when the cursor hovers over the graphic or image. The lack of alt-text on graphics and images prevents screen-readers from accurately vocalizing a description of the image or graphic. As a result, Plaintiffs and Class Members who are blind and visually impaired customers are unable to access the Defendants store locator, explore an array accessories and beauty products, home and tech items, apparel, footwear, find information about credit cards, gift cards, sales, or complete any purchases.
- Empty Links that contain No Text causing the function or purpose of the link to not be presented to the user. This can introduce confusion for keyboard and screen-reader users;
- Redundant Links where adjacent links go to the same URL address which results in additional navigation and repetition for keyboard and screen-reader users; and
- Linked Images missing alt-text, which causes problems if an image within a link does not contain any descriptive text and that image does not have alt-text. A screen reader then has no content to present the user as to the function of the link, including information or links for and contained in PDFs.
Plaintiff asserts the following cause(s) of action in its Complaint:
- Americans With Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. § 12181 et seq.
- Unruh Civil Rights Act, California Civil Code § 51 et seq.
Plaintiff seeks the following relief by way of its Complaint:
- For an Order certifying the Nationwide Class and California Class as defined herein and appointing Plaintiffs and his Counsel to represent the Nationwide Class and the California Class;
- A preliminary and permanent injunction pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 12188(a)(1) and (2) and section 52.1 of the California Civil Code enjoining Defendant from violating the Unruh Civil Rights Act and ADA and requiring Defendant to take the steps necessary to make https://www.forever21.com/us/shop readily accessible to and usable by visually-impaired individuals;
- An award of statutory minimum damages of $4,000 per offense per person pursuant to section 52(a) of the California Civil Code.
- For attorneys’ fees and expenses pursuant to California Civil Code §§ 52(a), 52.1(h), and 42 U.S.C. § 12205;
- For pre-judgment interest to the extent permitted by law;
- For costs of suit; and;
- For such other and further relief as the Court deems just and proper.