Joshua A. Stein, a Member of the Firm in the Labor and Employment practice and co-chair of the firm's ADA and Public Accommodations Group, in the firm’s New York office, was quoted in Hospitality Law, in “Make Sure Technology Is Accessible to All Guests.”
Following is an excerpt:
“Touchscreen technology is showing up all over the place,” said Joshua Stein, a member of Epstein Becker Green practicing in the firm's New York office. “We’re seeing a variety of class actions that allege that touchscreen technology is inaccessible and violates Title III of the ADA.” …
Title III specifically states that places of public accommodation must provide guests with disabilities with full and equal enjoyment of the place. Stein said that in recent years more complaints have focused on the lack of accessibility of some of these technologies, such as point-of-sale devices and kiosks, for individuals with disabilities. This has been particularly true of those who are vision impaired who have argued that they are unable to use these machines by themselves. Suits filed by the vision impaired have alleged that inaccessible machines have prevented them from having full and equal enjoyment, and, in some cases, imperiling their privacy if they must seek help from a friend or employee to enter sensitive information, such as pin numbers, in point-of-sale machines.
“The Department of Labor has squarely aligned itself with the plaintiffs, stating that [the DOJ] believes that Title III currently requires touch-screens and point-of-sale devices to be accessible,” Stein said.
