The official Beyoncé website, home to exclusive images of the Queen’s personal life, family, career, and merch, is at the center of a class action lawsuit against Parkwood Entertainment over the site’s visually impaired accessibility.
In the suit, obtained by the Hollywood Reporter, a New York woman named Mary Conner filed a class action suit, accusing the superstar’s company of violating the Americans With Disabilities Act by “denying visually impaired users equal access to products and services offered” offered on Bey’s beyonce.com website.
“The one and only form of entertainment that truly presents an even playing field between the visually impaired and the sighted is the joy of music,” an attorney, representing Conner, who has “no vision whatsoever,” wrote in the complaint. “Plaintiff dreams of attending a Beyonce concert and listening to her music in a live setting. However, when she browsed the beyonce.com website, she encountered numerous barriers which limited her accessibility to the goods and services offered on the website.”
According to Conner, because beyonce.com is “an exclusively visual interface” she’s unable to work the site without sighted assistance.
“Web accessibility requires that alt-text be coded with each picture so that a screen-reader can speak the alternative text while sighted users see the picture,” the attorney, Dan Shaked, added. “There are many important pictures on beyonce.com that lack a text equivalent…As a result, Plaintiff and blind beyonce.com customers are unable to determine what is on the website, browse the website or investigate and/or make purchase.”
Elsewhere in the suit, Conner highlights a slew of issues that cause issues with accessibility, as she asks a court to grant her an injunction that would force Parkwood to make the site accessible to blind and visually impaired customers. In addition, Conner also wants compensatory damages for class members who have “been subjected to unlawful discrimination.”
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