Several North Coast wineries are getting sued over their websites and access for those who are disabled.
The North Bay Business Journal reports that in recent months several dozen complaints have been filed in federal courts against mostly wine producers in Napa, Sonoma and surrounding counties. Almost all have been filed by the Center for Disability Access, a division of San Diego-based civil rights law firm Potter Handy LLP. However, they just represent one plaintiff, Andres Gomez, a legally blind man who uses screen-reader software to help him navigate the web. One complaint against Brown Estate Vineyards LLC in Napa County said Gomez visited the site but “encountered numerous accessibility design faults that prevented him from navigating the site successfully” using screen-reader software. That case with Brown Estate Vineyard was settled out of court but the settlement was undisclosed. Seyfarth Shaw LLP in Sacramento say that federal website accessibility lawsuit filings have jumped more than 250-percent in the past five years, to nearly 2,900 cases in 2021.