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NEWS: Funimation Sued in Class-Action Lawsuit for Allegations of Violating Americans with Disabiliti

varmintx wrote:

I didn't know you could sue for having a website that sucks for us blind folks. Look out, world, I'm gonna be bringing so many of these f***ing lawsuits, the litigation will never end!

If your business falls under Title I (you are open at least 20 hours per week and have at least 15 employees) or Title III (you are open to the public and fall into one of 12 specific categories of businesses) and you have a web site, then yes, in fact, you are legally required to be ADA-compliant, and you can be sued if you are not.

As we can see here, there are a lot of people who think that providing basic accessibility for disabled users is a joke, and fortunately that's why the ADA exists.

They specifically mentioned WCAG. Which, if you want to read it, is here: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/

It's a standard list of accessibility guidelines, typically mentioned in legislation related to enforcing accessibility on websites. Depending on the jurisdiction and type of business, different levels may be mandated.

I know it looks long, but the vast majority of the requirements are actually good coding practice.

I think one of the things people seem to be glossing over with this case is that she's literally asking for the bare minimum so she can actually use the website. From what I've heard elsewhere, it sounds like there's inconsistent (if any) enforcement of the ADA in the US for this type of issue without doing it this way -- which seems broken.

https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Jenisa+Angeles%22+lawsuit

Guess it's not her first lawsuit.
The Funimation Shop has several other significant issues, including the ban of foreign IP adresses resulting in the fact, that European anime fans interested in Funimations products cannot check which of their titles are Region B/2 (and shop.funimation.com is the only official source for this prior to the street date)

EDIT: Oh, this also makes me wonder: in this case, is the problem actually US-specific? Funi's site probably isn't any friendlier for blind users internationally, right? I guess their HQ is in Texas, US (glancing at their wikipedia page), so maybe that makes disabilities accommodations a US issue, legally speaking..?

Funi block non-US visitors so we can't actually load it, but other countries have similar laws - I was previously hired by a UK university to bring their website into WCAG compliance.

Not to sound mean, but if blind, how can you watch cartoons? Expect them to sound out the action or something?

Not to sound mean, but if blind, how can you watch cartoons? Expect them to sound out the action or something?

P.S: I don't know what Funimation's streaming service is like, because I'm cheap and only got Crunchyroll and Hulu right now. Been meaning to invest in Funimation subscription, but after this, I have even more reservations. Now how am I going to watch the MHA Dub?

Psionicdan wrote:

P.S: I don't know what Funimation's streaming service is like, because I'm cheap and only got Crunchyroll and Hulu right now. Been meaning to invest in Funimation subscription, but after this, I have even more reservations. Now how am I going to watch the MHA Dub?

Well, if you have hulu, you have access to the MHA dub, they currently host all four seasons both subbed and dubbed.

So my question is that if Funimation just meets the demands of the plantiffs, does the lawsuit get dropped or do they still have to go to court?

these sort of cases usually settle out of court with a small sum to the party in question and a commitment to improve access with in a set time period.

I wonder if there were any additional concrete requirements listed, or what the usual list of such requirements might look like in an example? I've run into ADA requirements in the past, and always wondered what exactly they tend to consist of for most websites. In any event, this seems more than reasonable to expect of even a tiny mom-and-pop shop like Funi.

NeverConvex wrote:

I wonder if there were any additional concrete requirements listed, or what the usual list of such requirements might look like in an example? I've run into ADA requirements in the past, and always wondered what exactly they tend to consist of for most websites. In any event, this seems more than reasonable to expect of even a tiny mom-and-pop shop like Funi.

I'm surprised nobody has noted this before now: the last time Funimation sold, back in 2017, Sony paid 143 million dollars for a 95% stake in the company. They are in no way, shape or form a 'tiny mom-and-pop shop'.