Domino's Pizza Comes Under Fire for Website Accessibility

Last week, CNBC reported that popular QSR franchise Domino’s Pizza was denied a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court for a hearing on the brand’s website accessibility. The case was brought on by Guillermo Robles, a blind man who was unable to use Domino’s website or app in conjunction with screen-reading technology. The case will now be handled by a lower court, in which Domino’s will have to fight Robles’ claims. 

Domino’s petition to the Supreme Court stated that its website and app are already accessible as of February 2017, and that both feature a banner to call customer service should users experience problems with screen readers.

Disability advocates see this rejection by the Supreme Court as a small win in a much larger issue of online accessibility for people with disabilities. In another story on CNBC, it was reported that cases such as this one have nearly tripled since 2017, amounting to 2,200 suits filed in federal courts last year per data provided by UsableNet.

Domino’s, along with other large restaurant chains, has been aggressively advancing its tech operations, but the accessibility compliance seems to be either a company oversight or a possible limitation of tech. Domino’s isn’t alone in this either. Even Beyoncé was sued for violation of the ADA. 

?...It would be much easier and there would likely be much more accessibility if the Department of Justice put out crystal clear guidelines on this topic,” said Stacy Cervenka, the Director of Public Policy for the American Foundation for the Blind, to CNBC. The development of more defined and progressive policies and regulations, however, has faced pushback under the Trump administration.

The highly public profile of this lawsuit in particular seems to be bringing a dialogue around accessibility and the ADA compliance of digital platforms to the forefront—a realm which critics have argued has notoriously lax enforcement and nebulous guidelines. 

Read the full article in CNBC here.