Lawsuit Claims Apple Violates Disabled Customer's Rights

By Jeff Gamut
Published Aug 31st, 2007, by The Mac Observer, Inc.

Two wheelchair-bound customers filed a lawsuit against Apple Inc. claiming the company's San Francisco retail store is not properly accessible to wheelchairs. The case filed on behalf of Nicole Brown-Booker and Jana Overbo charges that Apple's store does not provide adequate access to the entrance, elevator, restrooms, and other parts of the building, according to InformationWeek.

Ms. Brown-Booker claimed that when she visited the San Francisco Apple Store, she couldn't reach the elevator buttons, the aisles were too narrow to move her wheelchair through, and the credit card reader at the cash register was out of her reach. The suit claimed that Ms. Overbo signed up for a Genius Bar appointment, but was unable to get the attention of employees behind the bar, and that the lower wheelchair-accessible part of the counter was being used to display a computer.

The suit also stated that items like the iPhone and MacBook Pro computers were placed too high for shoppers in wheelchairs to access.

Both are seeking an injunction requiring Apple to redesign its store to be more wheelchair accessible, and are also asking for unspecified damages for "physical, mental, and emotional injuries."

Apple has also been hit with several other iPhone-specific lawsuits recently. Two focus on the fact that the iPhone's battery is not user replaceable, and a third claims that Apple did not adequately disclose that the iPhone is bound to AT&T's cell service.