The Situation

Sally calls sounding pretty upset. You ask her what happened, “Did you lose a ‘Soufflé’ today or something?” Not laughing, she starts to tell you she read that a disabled person was discriminated against by a franchise business because the company’s official website does not have an accessibility policy.

A disabled person sued based on the denial of access to the company’s website and won! You state, “I guess that’s possible, denial of accessibility is an established legal ground to sue under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). But, how in the world could a webpage not be accessible to a disabled person? Or, for that matter, how would it be accessible? How does that happen?” Sally replies, “I forgot one thing; the person suing was blind!”  “It still doesn’t make sense to me,” you state.

Your Response

You and Sally must investigate the Dunkin’ Donuts® case because the company intends to integrate its webpage into the core of the business. You need to get ahead of this issue.

1. Using the Dunkin’ Donuts case, list the basis of the violation of the ADA.
2. Analyze the facts and issues using the IRAC format.
3. Compare the applicability of the ADA to your device.
4. Do not forget to note the steps you must implement to guarantee that your website is compliant with the American with Disabilities Act.