Digital accessibility is a civil right of disabled people. In the United States and other countries, civil rights are baked into laws mandating accessibility. Among other things, these laws have different remedies available to people with disabilities who have been denied access to web content.
If someone sues under the ADA the remedies available to a disabled person include getting the problem fixed and getting their attorney paid. In California and some other states, the remedies also include money payments to impacted disabled people.
A class action is a type of lawsuit where lots of people with similar experiences get together and ask for remedies for all of them.
What is the status of the Fashion Nova case?
Fashion Nova is a fast fashion brand selling clothes through its website across the United States and in many other countries around the world. The lawsuit was filed by a blind person who alleged that the company’s website was not compatible with his screen reader. Eventually, after five years of expensive legal proceedings, the parties settled the case.
The case was settled as a class action. There were two class settlements. One was for people living everywhere in the US except for California. The other involved “All legally blind individuals residing in California who attempted to access Fashion Nova’s website using screen reading software during the same period.”
There was a separate “California class” because California has a law that allows disabled people to recover up to $4,000.00 for violations of California disability discrimination law. This money comes out of a 5.15 million dollar fund that was part of a settlement agreement. 51% of the money will go to people who file claims.
The rest goes to lawyer fees and costs the lawyers incurred in prosecuting the case over five years. The lawyers in this case are the type of lawyer who, in my opinion, are focused on money, and not on long term sustainable accessibility. (There are some requirements for fixing the website which I am trying to track down. In an ethical class action the requirements for fixing the problem are openly shared with all members of the class. I was surprised the requirements were not included in the official notice to the class.)
Legally blind people in California meeting the class definition can file a claim for $4,000.00 until October 20th. Link to the claim form is below in the resource section.