THE WHAT? Plaintiff Marina Iskhakova has filed a class action suit against L’Oréal, stating that the company’s Saloncentric website is not accessible to visually impaired people using a screen reader.

THE DETAILS Filing the suit in a New York federal court, Iskhakova stated that the inaccessibility of the site is a violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) and that many features on the website lack alt text – the invisible code embedded beneath a graphical image.

According to Top Class Actions, Iskhakova was unable to differentiate what products were on the screen. The website was also said to contain a host of broken links and pages that contain the same title elements.

THE WHY? Iskhakova is said to be representing all legally blind people in the United States, with the class action stating, “These access barriers effectively denied Plaintiff the ability to use and enjoy Defendant’s website the same way sighted individuals do.”

The plaintiff is seeking a permanent injunction to cause a change in the defendants’ corporate policies, practices and procedures in order for the websites to become and remain accessible to blind and visually impaired users.