With more and more people turning to the Internet for their news, a proposed class action lawsuit in California accuses a leading news source of discriminating against the deaf. The plaintiffs accuse CNN.com’s owner, Time Warner, of discrimination for failing to provide closed captions for its online videos. Specifically, the plaintiffs allege that Time Warner is violating California’s disability and civil rights laws.
According to the lawsuit, CNN’s refusal to close caption its online videos excludes deaf Californians from crucial information about current events. The planitiffs’ attorneys said that over 100,000 Californians are functionally deaf, and the suit is the first in the country to seek equal treatment for the deaf from an Internet content provider.
CNN’s website is a popular choice for online news. Many of the stories are in the form of short online videos and do not contain closed captioning. Although the CNN website provides written text for each video, plaintiffs’ attorneys say the text is incomplete and differs from the accompanying online video.
Contact a Florida class action lawyer if you think you may qualify as a member of a class action lawsuit. Having an experienced Florida attorney on your side will help you get the best possible result in any type of large-scale litigation.