The Supreme Court has rebuffed a request from pizza giant Domino’s to decide whether federal disabilities law requires its website and mobile app to be accessible to people with disabilities.
The decision by the high court not to take up Domino’s appeal leaves in place a lower court ruling that paved the way for Guillermo Robles, a blind man, to sue the restaurant chain over claims its website and app do not comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act.
Robles sued in 2016 after he had difficulty ordering a pizza on Domino’s website because it and the app were incompatible with the screen-reading software he employs to use the internet. The site and app, Robles claimed, lacked adequate written descriptions for each image and required customers who use screen-reading software to go through “additional navigation and repetition” when placing orders, according to filings with the Supreme Court.
Robles claimed these issues meant he couldn’t pick pizza toppings or add the pizza to his shopping cart and complete the transaction online. Domino’s, however, said Robles chose not to call for delivery or pickup at his local store.
Robles filed a lawsuit against Domino’s and argued businesses with a physical presence must ensure their online platforms comply with federal disabilities law.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court ruled in favor of Robles, saying the “alleged inaccessibility of Domino’s website and app impedes access to the goods and services of its physical pizza franchises.”
But Domino’s said part of the American With Disabilities Act requiring “public accommodations” ensure accessibility for disabled people extends only to their physical locations.
The measure “does not demand full accessibility for each and every means of accessing the goods or services a public accommodation provides to the public,” the company said in a filing with the Supreme Court.
Domino’s warned that uncertainty over the reach of the Americans With Disabilities Act has led to the proliferation of lawsuits against restaurants, retailers, grocery stores, banks, and universities alleging their websites were not accessible to individuals with disabilities and therefore subject to liability.
In 2018, more than 2,250 federal lawsuits claiming Americans With Disabilities Act violations over website-inaccessibility were filed, nearly triple from the year prior, Domino’s said.
Leaving in place the 9th Circuit’s ruling, the pizza chain said, “explodes the reach of” the Americans With Disabilities Act “into the online world.”
