OLSEN v. CLAIRES STORES INC.

    Plaintiff

    • Name: Thomas J. Olsen
    • Filing date: March 28, 2019
    • State of filing: New York

    Defendant

    • Name: Claires Stores Inc.
    • Website: www.claires.com
    • Industry: Consumer Goods
    • Summary: Claire's is an American retailer of accessories, jewelry, and toys primarily aimed toward girls, tweens and teens.

    Case Summary

    On March 28, 2019, Thomas J. Olsen filed a Complaint in New York Federal court against Claires Stores Inc.. Plaintiff Thomas J. Olsen alleges that www.claires.com is not accessible per the WCAG 2.0 accessibility standard(s).

    Case Details

    Plaintiff alleges issues in its Complaint including the following:

    • Plaintiff Olsen was unable to learn about store locations
    • Plaintiff Olsen also had difficulty learning about the products available for purchase online or in stores. Links do not function properly, therefore, Plaintiff Olsen was unable to learn about the products without assistance from a sighted user. 
      The screen reader had significant difficulty navigating the website. Many links are not labeled and there is no surrounding text clearly explaining where the link will lead
    • Plaintiff Olsen also encountered difficulty when trying to add an item to his bag
    • Fieldset elements are not labeled with legend elements
    • Documents titles are blank
    • Frames do not have a title
    • PDFs are not tagged and therefore are inaccessible to screen readers
    • Some pages have the same title, so the title cannot be used to distinguish pages
    • Webpages have duplicate IDs which cause problems in screen readers
    • Webpages have no headings and approximately twenty (20) headings are empty
    • Links use general text like “here” which doesn’t explain the link’s purpose
    • Several links on a page share the same link text but go to different destinations
    • Webpages have markup errors

    Plaintiff asserts the following cause(s) of action in its Complaint:

    • VIOLATIONS OF THE ADA, 42 U.S.C. § 12181 et seq.
    • VIOLATIONS OF THE NYSHRL
    • VIOLATIONS OF THE NYCHRL
    • DECLARATORY RELIEF

    Plaintiff seeks the following relief by way of its Complaint:

    • A preliminary and permanent injunction to prohibit Defendant from violating Title III of the ADA, 42 U.S.C. §§ 12182, et seq., N.Y. Exec. Law § 296, et seq., N.Y.C. Admin. Code § 8-107, et seq., and the laws of New York
    • A preliminary and permanent injunction requiring Defendant to take all the steps necessary to make its Website into full compliance with the requirements set forth in Title III of the ADA, and its implementing regulations, so that the Website is readily accessible to and usable by blind individuals
    • A declaration that Defendant owns, maintains and/or operates the Website in a manner that discriminates against the blind and which fails to provide access  for persons with disabilities as required by ADA, 42 U.S.C. §§ 12182, et seq., N.Y. Exec. Law § 296, et seq., N.Y.C. Admin. Code § 8-107, et seq., and the laws of New York
    • An order certifying the Class and Subclasses under Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(a) & (b)(2) and/or (b)(3), appointing Plaintiff as Class Representative, and his attorneys as Class Counsel
    • Compensatory damages in an amount to be determined by proof, including all applicable statutory damages, punitive damages and fines
    • Pre- and post-judgment interest
    • An award of costs and expenses of this action together with reasonable attorneys’ and expert fees
    • Such other and further relief as this Court deems just and proper

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