Thomas J. Olsen v. Outdoor Fellow, LLC

Summary

On April 29, 2019, Thomas J. Olsen filed a Complaint in New York Federal court against Outdoor Fellow, LLC. Plaintiff Thomas J. Olsen alleges that www.outdoorfellow.com is not accessible per the WCAG 2.0 accessibility standard(s).

About the defendant

Outdoor Fellow makes and sells scented candles.

What the complaint says

The problems the plaintiff describes with the website.

• Lack of alt-text for images.
• Fieldset elements are not labeled with legend elements.
• Documents do not have a title.
• Document titles are blank.
• PDFs are not tagged and therefore are inaccessible to screen readers.
• Some pages have the same title, so the title cannot be used to distinguish pages. g. Webpages have markup errors.
• Webpages have no headings, headings are empty, and headings are not nested correctly. Several links on a page share the same link text, but go to different destinations.

Legal claims

The laws the plaintiff says the defendant broke, called causes of action.

• Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. § 12181 et seq.
• New York State Human Rights Law
• New York City Human Rights Law
• Declaratory Relief

What the plaintiff asks for

What the plaintiff wants the court to order.

• A preliminary and permanent injunction to prohibit Defendant from violating Title III of the ADA, 42 U.S.C. §§ 12182, et seq., N.Y. Exec. Law § 296, et seq., N.Y.C. Admin. 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 Title III of the ADA, and its implementing regulations, so that the Website isreadily accessible to and usable by blind individuals;
• A declaration that Defendant owns, maintains and/or operates the Website in a manner that discriminates against the blind and which fails to provide access for persons with disabilities as required by ADA, 42 U.S.C. §§ 12182, et seq., N.Y. Exec.Law § 296, et seq., N.Y.C. Admin. Code § 8-107, et seq., and the laws of New York
• An order certifying the Class and Subclasses under Fed. R. Civ. P.23(a) & (b)(2) and/or (b)(3), appointing Plaintiff as Class Representative, and his attorneys as Class Counsel;
• Compensatory damages in an amount to be determined by proof, including all applicable statutory damages, punitive damages and fines;
• Pre- and post-judgment interest;
• An award of costs and expenses of this action together with reasonable attorneys’ and expert fees; and
• Such other and further relief as this Court deems just and proper.