Plaintiff
- Name: Michelle Tenzer-Fuchs
- Filing date: October 2, 2020
- State of filing: New York
Defendant
- Name: Sublease Exchange.com, Inc
- Website: www.leasetrader.com
- Industry: Automobile
- Summary: Sublease Exchange owns and operates leasetrader.com, an auto lease transfer and lease assumption service.
Case Summary
On October 2, 2020, Michelle Tenzer-Fuchs filed a Complaint in New York Federal court against Sublease Exchange.com, Inc. Plaintiff Michelle Tenzer-Fuchs alleges that www.leasetrader.com is not accessible per the WCAG 2.1 accessibility standard(s).
Case Details
Plaintiff alleges issues in its Complaint including the following:
- Many features on the Website lacks alt. text, which is the invisible code embedded beneath a graphical image. As a result, Plaintiff was unable to differentiate what vehicles were on the screen due to the failure of the Website to adequately describe its content. This was especially problematic on Defendant’s Website because to Plaintiff, who can barely see the images on the screen, all of the images of the vehicles available for lease looked to be utterly identical. And with no alt. text embedded in the images to describe the vehicles’ differences, Plaintiff was forced to aimlessly click around on her screen until her screen reader would read something to her in an effort to guide her with browsing and attempting to select a vehicle to lease from Defendant’s website.
- Additionally, many features on the Website also fail to add a label element or title attribute for each field. This is a problem for the visually-impaired because the screen reader fails to communicate the purpose of the page element. It also leads to the user not being able to understand what she or she is expected to insert into the subject field. This was an issue on Defendant’s Website particularly in the location- selection section, because the Website itself gave Plaintiff no indication that there were interactive features on the screen that she was required to use to specify the location she was looking to find a lease in. As a result, Plaintiff and similarly situated visually-impaired users of Defendant’s Website were and still are unable to enjoy the privileges and benefits of the Website equally to sighted users.
- The Website also contained a host of broken links, which is a hyperlink to a non- existent or empty webpage. For the visually impaired this is especially paralyzing due to the inability to navigate or otherwise determine where one is on the website once a broken link is encountered. For example, upon coming across a link of interest, Plaintiff clicked on it, and was immediately redirected to an error page. However, the screen-reader failed to communicate that the link was broken. As a result, Plaintiff could not get back to her original search.
- Moreover, because www.leasetrader.com contains numerous navigational buttons lacking alt. text, Plaintiff’s screen reader could not help her navigate the pages of the site at all, and she quickly found herself hopelessly lost within the site with just a few clicks of her mouse.
- Worse still, when Plaintiff finally stumbled on vehicle she thought she and her husband would like, a blue 2020 Audi in Flushing, NY, she unfortunately found that no matter how hard she tried, she could not get her screen reader to describe any of the vehicle pictures to her, besides the first one, nor would her reader read more than a couple words from the vehicle’s description beneath its images.
Plaintiff asserts the following cause(s) of action in its Complaint:
- VIOLATIONS OF THE ADA, 42 U.S.C. § 12181 et seq
- VIOLATIONS OF THE NYSHRL
- VIOLATIONS OF THE NYCHRL
- DECLARATORY RELIEF
Plaintiff seeks the following relief by way of its Complaint:
- A preliminary and permanent injunction to prohibit Defendant from violating the Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 12182, et seq., N.Y.C. Administrative Code § 8-107, et seq., and the laws of New York
- A preliminary and permanent injunction requiring Defendant to take all the steps necessary to make its Website into full compliance with the requirements set forth in the ADA, and its implementing regulations, so that the Website is readily accessible to and usable by blind individuals
- A declaration that Defendant owns, maintains and/or operates its Website in a manner that discriminates against the blind and which fails to provide access for persons with disabilities as required by Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 12182, et seq., N.Y. Exec. Law § 296(2) et seq., N.Y.C. Administrative Code § 8-107, et seq., and the laws of New York
- An order certifying the Class and Sub-Classes under Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(a) & (b)(2) and/or (b)(3), appointing Plaintiff as Class Representative, and her attorneys as Class Counsel
- Compensatory damages in an amount to be determined by proof, including all applicable statutory and punitive damages and fines, to Plaintiff and the proposed class and subclasses for violations of their civil rights under New York State and New York City Human Rights Law
- Pre- and post-judgment interest
- An award of costs and expenses of this action together with reasonable attorneys’ and expert fees
- Such other and further relief as this Court deems just and proper.