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Parkwood Entertainment has a lawsuit on their hands from a blind woman whose argument is based on accessibility issues with Beyoncé’s official site.
As first reported by The Hollywood Reporter, a blind woman from New York, Mary Connor, is suing the company because she’s not able to visually experience Beyonce.com. Within the lawsuit, Mary is said to have “no vision whatsoever” and millions of other visually impaired people are unable to fully use the superstar’s website without help.
Mary’s attorney argues that music is transcending when it comes to the sighted and the blind. The plaintiff “dreams” of one day attending a Beyoncé show and experiencing her music “in a live setting.” Mary herself refers to Beyonce.com as an “exclusive visual interface” that limits her access to the site’s features.
Mary’s attorney said,
“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. Web accessibility requires that alt-text is coded with each picture so that a screen-reader can speak the alternative text while sighted users see the picture. 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 purchases.”
Beyoncé production company, Parkwood Entertainment, have yet to respond to the lawsuit.
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