According to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in the Southern District of New York, a resident of the Bronx, New York, claims that video game company Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) does not make its page online in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. (ADA), therefore, the online page is supposedly inaccessible to the applicant.
The complaint states that when the whistleblower, described as “a visually impaired and legally blind person,” accessed his online page this month, the site had screen reading issues that prevented it from accessing all content for sighted users.
EA is a company based in Redwood City, California, that creates and sells video games for consoles, PCs, and mobile devices. According to its website, it boasts more than 580 million active and enthusiastic players worldwide and a portfolio of critically acclaimed brands, such as EA SPORTS FIFA, Battlefield, and Apex Legends.
The dossier explains that blind or visually impaired users use screen-reading software to fully access Internet sites and the information, products, goods and facilities they offer. For the software to work, Internet sites must be designed to be readable on the screen. , and EA is not, the complaint says.
Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that when the plaintiff visited the website, the screen reader was unable to successfully navigate it, did not read the item description links when it was selected, and did not read the prices of the items. According to the plaintiff, those deficiencies violate Title III of the ADA, as well as the New York City Human Rights Act.
The applicant seeks to certify the presence of blind or visually impaired persons who have attempted to access ea’s online page and have been denied the equivalent within the last 3 years. The 3-count lawsuit seeks a court order ordering EA to rectify the issues. , statutory and otherwise, and the award of fees and expenses to the plaintiff’s lawyer.
The plaintiff is represented by Mizrahi Kroub LLP.