Blind Man Says Famous Footwear Must Step Up Website Accessibility

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Two operating companies of Famous Footwear shoe stores in New York City are facing claims that they violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to design a website that is compatible with the screen-reading technology used by visually impaired internet users. The lawsuit, filed by a blind New York man, alleges that the defendants’ website – www.famousfootwear.com – blocks blind users from accessing information about the stores’ hours and locations, learning about sales and store policies, reviewing size charts, reading reviews, and purchasing various products and gift cards online. The complaint claims the site is “a gateway” to the defendants’ brick-and-mortar stores and that its various access barriers, which the suit says include a lack of alternate text and empty/redundant links, unlawfully bar blind individuals from “full and equal access” to the defendants’ goods and services.