CHARLOTTE — Luz Marina Rosenfeld says she wasn’t always visually-impaired. She says she lost her vision as an adult. Sometimes, she gets frustrated when she goes online.
“Very challenging. Many times I couldn’t get on websites, my husband [would] have to help me,” she told Action 9 attorney Jason Stoogenke. “It’s frustrating. It is sad. Stupidity of the people, how they just treat you, hey, like you are less than zero.”
Federal law -- the Americans with Disabilities Act -- says almost all companies that serve the public are supposed to make their websites accessible for people with disabilities. For example:
- Have enough contrast between the text and background.
- Provide ways for people to understand pictures, charts, and other images they can’t see.
- Captions on videos.
- Make sure you can use keystrokes, not just a mouse.
People have been suing businesses across the country over this issue a lot. Stoogenke teamed up with consumer reporters at WSOC’s sister stations across the country and found more than 15,000 lawsuits in the past four years.
One of the plaintiffs, Victor Ariza, said, through an interpreter that the lawsuits have been “helping a lot” and that now he sees “more services, more compliance.”
But when the interpreter asked him about a specific website, Ariza’s response was telling.
“So he’s saying that he doesn’t remember that website, he’s done so many,” the interpreter said.
According to Action 9’s data, Ariza’s name appeared as plaintiff on 383 lawsuits from 2022-2025.
In fact, a lot of the same plaintiffs came up often. So did the same lawyers. Action 9 found nearly 4,000 cases were filed in 2025, 90% of them by just 16 law firms.
“Filing a lot of lawsuits for the right reasons can be a beneficial and necessary thing,” said Bruce Carlson, one of the first attorneys in the country to pursue ADA website litigation.
Carlson insists he’s in it for the right reasons. After all, his efforts helped make ATMs more accessible for people with disabilities. But he criticizes some of the other attorneys in this space.
“I’m not an advocate of that approach,” he said. “It can actually be a disservice to the disabled community.”
So who are they suing? Who are the defendants? All sorts of companies have been named, including some based here in the Charlotte area, like Bojangles’, Firebirds Wood Fired Grill, and Shoe Carnival.
No one from those three companies responded in time for this report, but some in other states did.
“It’s not like we have hundreds of employees. We are just so small. Bare bones. We’re just trying to make it,” Ajeeta Khanna, an Orlando flower shop owner, said.
“Abuse. It’s abuse. They found a way to get money,” Jacques Klempf, who owns a Jacksonville, Florida, restaurant, said.
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“I am morally aghast by what is going on,” Nayan Padrai said.
So aghast, Padrai started researching the lawsuits. He says he even spoke with plaintiffs who told him law firms actually recruited them. The way he sees it, these are serial plaintiffs and lawyers whose goal isn’t to make websites more accessible -- their business model is to sue, settle, and move on.
“The settlements generally were in the tens of thousands of dollars,” he added. Padrai is now making a film about the issue. He went from defendant to documentarian.
Attorney Peter Brann says he’s defended about 100 of these cases.
“They’re not really about ADA accessibility. It’s all about attorney fees,” Brann said.
“I hate to attribute bad motives to people who I know actually do have these disabilities -- we’re not debating that -- but I do believe that it is a money grab by the lawyers,” Stephanie Martz, with the National Retail Federation, said.
Law professor Judy McMorrow isn’t taking sides, but points out that people have a right to sue, assuming they do so in good faith.
“What you call abusive, I could say is effective,” McMorrow said. “In many instances, private actions are the only meaningful enforcement of certain rights.”
The National Federation of the Blind is concerned about both sides. They passed a resolution condemning plaintiffs and lawyers who may be “exploiting the situation,” but opposing new laws that may hinder people who have “legitimate complaints.”
The Federation says the ADA isn’t “a tool for greedy lawyers to extort quick cash settlements from businesses.”
As for Rosenfeld, she isn’t suing anyone. But she respects the ADA and wants companies to as well.
“I call them and I tell them. Yes, I know about the ADA law. Very well,” she told Stoogenke. “I tell them it’s against the law. You’re supposed to have everything for us to go into a computer, and they will give you a lot of excuses.”
And Klempf urges businesses to follow the law for their own sake too. “You’d better get your website compliant because you could be next.”
So where does this leave you? Well, if you live with a disability, know what the ADA says, what your rights are. If someone’s violating them, you have a right to sue. But you may want to reach out to the business, try to get it resolved without court first. Plus, you can always file a complaint with the federal government. They pursue ADA compliance cases.
If you’re on the other side -- if you own a business -- and you’re worried about becoming a defendant in a case like this, make sure your website is accessible. Click or tap this link to see the rules.
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