Langrock Represents National Federation of the Blind in Scribd Case

The National Federal of the Blind (NFB), the nation’s leading advocate for access by the blind to information and technology, today applauded a ruling issued by Judge William K. Sessions III of the United States District Court for the District of Vermont in a lawsuit filed by the NFB and Heidi Viens, a blind mother from Colchester, against Scribd, Inc. The court’s ruling denied Scribd’s motion to have the case dismissed. The lawsuit alleges violations of Title III of the American Disabilities Act (ADA). Scribd had argued that the ADA did not apply because the company does not offer its services from a public physical location. Judge Sessions rejected this argument, ruling that Scribd’s services clearly fall within at least one category of public accommodations covered by the ADA. The ADA therefore covers the claim that Scribd’s failure to make its services available to blind people who access its website or mobile apps violates the law. A ruling that Scribd can discriminate against people with disabilities online but not at a public physical location, Judge Sessions said, would be an “absurd result” clearly at odds with the intent of the law.

Langrock attorneys Emily Joselson and Michele Patton acted as local counsel for the NFB and Ms. Viens.