Playboy is being sued by a blind man. That’s right, Donald Nixon a legally blind man is suing Playboy for operating a website which can’t be enjoyed by people who are visually impaired.
Why Playboy being sued?
Donald Nixon filed the lawsuit, claiming that both Playboy.com and Playboyshop.com are in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) , because the websites are “not compatible with his screen-reading software.”
According to TMZ, Nixon is suing to force Playboy to make its websites accessible for the blind, as well as for unspecified damages.
So far TMZ has reached out to Playboy.com but has yet to hear any reply from them.
What is the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)?
The ADA is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life, including jobs, schools, transportation, and all public and private places that are open to the general public. The purpose of the law is to make sure that people with disabilities have the same rights and opportunities as everyone else. The ADA gives civil rights protections to individuals with disabilities similar to those provided to individuals on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, age, and religion.
What is a Screen-Reading Software?
We did some reading up on what is a Screen-reading software, these Software help blind or visually impaired users to read text on computer screen by reading out the text onto the computer speakers.
Our point of view on the situation.
People who are familiar with Playboy would know what your going there for. Majority of people who visit Playboy website are there for the photos, or video clips. These photos and video clips, we have our doubts they contain text for Screen-Reading Software to read out onto the user’s computer speaks. (Of course we could be wrong).
Well thinking about video clips, they should have audio coming out from the clips, thus if there are any words mentioned it already should be there in the video’s audio.
The only possible thing that we can think of now would either be the photos or real Text words which are from their Articles. Maybe these photos are just plain photos WITHOUT any text on it. Guess that could be why no text was read when he was trying to get his software to read the text.
Another point that we notice from the TMZ’s post is that
because the websites are “not compatible with his screen-reading software.”
Usually when we try something and its not compatible with what we want to use for, most of us would tend to try a different tool or software. It makes us wonder if the situation could have totally been avoided by trying another Screen-reading software till we find one that is compatible? Is this a case of being plain lazy or self-privileged?
If he had tried a different screen-reading software and the alternative software did work, wouldn’t the fault lie with the screen reading software and not with Playboy in this scenario?
