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ADA Lawsuit Watch: 9 New Website Accessibility Suits Hit Online Stores and Retailers

By Ryvo Team

AccessibilityADA LawsuitsE-commerceRetailSmall Business

What happened

Over the last 14 days, nine new ADA website accessibility lawsuits landed in federal court. Most were filed in New York (the Southern District of New York) and Florida (the Southern District of Florida).

The big theme? Online stores. Seven of the nine suits target e-commerce brands, including skincare company Powell v. Curology, Inc., supplement seller Powell v. Cymbiotika, LLC, and apparel brand Russo v. Spanx, LLC. The other two hit general retailers, including Gazonni v. OFFICE DEPOT LLC.

A few names show up again and again as plaintiffs, which suggests these filings are coming in batches.

What the lawsuits claim

Each of these cases is filed under the ADA (the Americans with Disabilities Act). In plain terms, the lawsuits allege that a business's website can't be fully used by people with disabilities — for example, shoppers who rely on a screen reader to hear the page read out loud.

The filings describe the sites as having accessibility barriers. Suits like these commonly point to problems such as:

  • Screen-reader trouble — a blind visitor's software can't read parts of the page, like product names or prices.
  • Images with no description — pictures have no text label, so the software has nothing to announce.
  • Forms that are hard to use — checkout fields, search boxes, or sign-up forms aren't labeled clearly, so they're confusing to fill out without a mouse or without seeing the screen.
  • Menus and buttons that don't work with a keyboard — some people navigate with the keyboard alone and can get stuck.

Keep in mind: these are allegations. For example, Castro v. Jason Hyde, LLC alleges the company's digital offerings are inaccessible — but a court has not decided that.

Who should pay attention

Based only on this batch of filings, online stores are getting the most attention. Selling products directly on your website — supplements, skincare, clothing, jewelry, home goods — seems to draw the most claims, as seen in cases like Russo v. PlanetArt, LLC and Russo v. Adornmonde, Inc..

General retailers are showing up too, including a well-known chain in Gazonni v. OFFICE DEPOT LLC and a smaller retailer in McKinnley v. ATM Collection, Inc..

And geography matters in this batch: nearly all of these suits were filed in New York and Florida courts. If you sell to customers in those states, this pattern is worth watching.

What to do about it

You don't need to be a tech expert to start improving your site. A few practical steps:

  1. Check the basics. Make sure every image has a text description, every form field has a clear label, and someone can move through your site using only the keyboard.
  2. Test with a screen reader. Turn on the free screen reader built into your computer or phone and try to shop your own site. If you get stuck, real customers might too.
  3. Get a plain-English snapshot. You can run a free scan of your website to spot common issues and see where to focus first.

Small, steady fixes make your site easier for more people to use — and that's good for every visitor.

This post summarizes allegations from public court filings. It is not legal advice, and no outcome described here has been decided by a court unless stated.