Groupon Faces ADA Class Action Over Screen Reader Barriers on Its Website
A class action lawsuit filed on Sept. 15, 2026 alleges that Groupon Inc.'s website is not accessible to blind and low-vision shoppers. The complaint, brought by plaintiff Julie Dalton in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota (case 0:26-cv-04014), claims that groupon.com does not work with the screen reader software that blind and low-vision users rely on.
Dalton, who is legally blind, navigates the web with a screen reader, software that reads a page aloud and announces cues such as whether a link is clickable so the user can respond with a keyboard. According to the complaint, she visited groupon.com in August 2026 while looking for discounted Labor Day activities; when she tried to open a promotion link, the narration her screen reader produced did not make sense to her, and she left the site without buying anything. An investigation carried out on her behalf reportedly confirmed that experience and identified additional barriers, including links and buttons whose purpose is unclear from context or narration, a drop-down menu and a locations map menu that the site fails to recognize and read, insufficient text equivalents for important non-text images, and visual cues being the only way to convey certain information.
The complaint raises two causes of action. The first is Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires businesses open to the public to provide aids and services so they communicate effectively with people with disabilities. The second is the Minnesota Human Rights Act, which bars public accommodations from denying people the full and equal enjoyment of goods and services because of a disability. Dalton is seeking to represent a class of people who are blind or have a low-vision disability within the meaning of the ADA, use screen reader aids to navigate online content, and have accessed, tried to access or may try to access Groupon's website.
The plaintiff's main request is a permanent injunction on a set schedule. Under that plan, Groupon would have to complete an accessibility audit and write a digital accessibility policy within 90 days of a court order, submit a corrective action strategy within 180 days, implement staff training and a designated accessibility monitor within 12 months, and make every page accessible to blind users within 18 months. Beyond the injunction, Dalton is asking for a declaratory judgment, damages and a damage multiplier under the Minnesota Human Rights Act, a civil penalty payable to the state of Minnesota, and attorneys' fees and costs.
The case remains pending in federal court in Minnesota. There is no settlement, no claims process and no money available at this time. The filing adds to the ongoing stream of ADA Title III complaints over retail and e-commerce websites that do not work with assistive technology.