Turns out some Beyoncé Knowles fans aren't "crazy in love" with her website.
Parkwood Entertainment, Beyoncé's company, is being hit with a class-action lawsuit claiming Beyonce.com violates the Americans With Disabilities Act.
A New York woman named Mary Conner who has "no vision whatsoever," according to the court filing, says the website isn't accessible for people who are visually impaired.
"Beyonce.com provides to the public a wide array of the goods, services, price specials, and other programs offered by Parkwood. Yet, Beyonce.com contains thousands of access barriers that make it difficult if not impossible for blind and visually-impaired customers to use the website. In fact, the access barriers make it impossible for blind and visually-impaired users to even complete a transaction on the website," states the lawsuit from attorney Dan Shaked.
One of the problems with the site, according to the lawsuit, is that there is not any alt-text (alternative text) accompanying website elements and images. Alt-text is a word or phrase that can be added to elements of a website so users can be told the nature or contents of what they are clicking on. While alt-text has a lot of uses, one of the most cited reasons for having it is that this text enables blind or visually impaired individuals to click on an image or element on a website and what is being displayed can be described to them. They can then independently navigate a website.
Beyonce.com is an "exclusively visual interface," the lawsuit says, citing additional problems with "descriptive links" and "resizable text."
Beyoncé nor Parkwood Entertainment has released a public statement or response to the lawsuit.
You can read the full lawsuit below.
Conner v Parkwood by on Scribd
