Win for Winn-Dixie: Limited-use website isn't place of public accommodation

In a much-anticipated decision, the 11th Circuit (which covers Alabama, Florida, and Georgia employers) recently provided relief to businesses facing website accessibility lawsuits filed by serial litigants.

Background

Juan Carlos Gil, who is blind, has filed numerous website accessibility lawsuits against various businesses and government entities—some 175 pieces of litigation in South Florida alone, according to the Palm Beach Post. As a visually impaired individual, he claims he is unable to access the entities' websites, which he contends violates Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Title III states: "No individual shall be discriminated against on the basis of disability in the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations of any place of public accommodation by any person who owns, leases (or leases to), or operates a place of public accommodation." It further defines "places of public accommodation" by setting out 12 categories of businesses that are generally open to the public, such as restaurants, schools, doctors' offices, and (of course) grocery stores.

Gil sued a Winn-Dixie grocery store in July 2016, alleging he couldn't use its website to refill his prescriptions or link online coupons to his store card because the site was incompatible with the screen-reading software he used. A lower court ruled in his favor and required the store chain to conform its website to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level AA, a privately developed set of accessibility criteria.