BUSW7.4

The Situation

A smiling woman with her arms folded.

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 franchise business discriminated against a disabled person because the company’s official website did not have an accessibility policy.

A disabled person sued based on denying 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)    https://beta.ada.gov/    . 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.

Review the following:

Dennis Haynes v. Dunkin’ Donuts LLC, et al., No. 18-10373 (11th Cir. 2018) (Justia)

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca11/18-10373/18-10373-2018-07-31.html

W3 Web Accessibility (Web Accessibility Initiative)

https://www.w3.org/WAI/fundamentals/accessibility-principles/

Your Response

You and Sally must investigate the Dunkin’ Donuts® case because your company intends to integrate its webpage into the core of the business operations. You need to get ahead of the issues raised in the Dunkin’ Donuts® case.

Using the IRAC format, analyze the facts and issues of the Dunkin’ Donuts® case.

Identify the statutory provisions of the ADA (if any) that were violated by Dunkin’ Donuts®.

Analyze your device intended functions and applications that potentially violate the ADA. Include the ADA statutory sections that impact its use in the business.

Compare the applicability of the ADA to your device what changes would you implement to reduce any potential liability claims.

Are there steps that your company can implement to guarantee that your website is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act? If so, what are they? List them and identify whether they ADA statutory provisions or some other source. 

Please note that “yes” or “no” answers, keywords without explanation, one-sentence, or incomplete sentences are not acceptable as a response. Responses should be fully developed incorporating the question in the response and analyzed based on the statutory requirements. Entries are required to be single-spaced.

Submission Instructions

Upload the following documents:

IRAC analyses form for the Dunkin Donuts case

IRAC analysis form for the direct payment system