Philip J Catanzano is Senior Counsel in Holland &
Knight's
Boston office
In Haynes v. Dunkin' Donuts LLC, No. 18-10373, 2018
WL 3634720 (11th Cir. July 31, 2018), a blind plaintiff sued
Dunkin' Donuts, alleging that its public-facing website, www.dunkindonuts.com, was not compatible with
"his, or any, screen reading software." The parties
agreed that Dunkin' Donuts is a "public
accommodation," subject to Title III of the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. §1218 et. seq. The
plaintiff's legal theory was that, as a public accommodation,
Dunkin' Donuts failed to maintain an accessible website. The
district court dismissed the claim because the plaintiff had
"failed to allege a nexus between the barriers to access that
he faced on the website and his inability to access goods and
services" in the physical stores. On appeal, the Eleventh
Circuit reversed the district court and remanded for further
proceedings, holding that the ADA's prohibition
