LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired v. ADP TotalSource

Scroll to case documents Date Filed: 09/17/2020 Date Settled: 10/22/2021 Status:

In September 2020, DRA filed a class action suit on behalf of San Francisco’s LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired and two of its employees against payroll processing and HR giant, ADP TotalSource and its parent company Automatic Data Processing, Inc. for failing to make their industry-leading products and services accessible to blind managers and line staff. The suit alleged that ADP’s cloud-based payroll and HR services were not accessible to blind professionals who use assistive technology such as screenreaders, in violation of California civil rights and anti-discrimination law. The lawsuit was originally filed in San Francisco County Superior Court. ADP removed the case to the Northern District of California in December 2020.

Rather than proceeding with litigation, we engaged in productive structured negotiations with ADP. In October 2021, DRA’s clients reached an agreement with ADP TotalSource to ensure that ADP’s Workforce Now solution can be used by LightHouse staff who are blind or have low vision and use screen-reading software to access digital content.

As part of the agreement, ADP will roll out the following changes to ensure the accessibility of its web and mobile applications for people who use screen readers:

  • Engage a leading web accessibility expert to identify accessibility barriers in ADP’s Workforce Now web and mobile products used by LightHouse staff.
  • Fix barriers identified by the web accessibility expert to ensure that individuals who use screen readers can navigate the website and app, access features of the website and app including the timekeeping functions, view pay, and benefits information, and participate in open enrollment.
  • For the purpose of this Agreement, “overlay” solutions such as those currently provided by companies such as AudioEye and AccessiBe will not suffice to achieve Accessibility.
  • Develop a policy to incorporate accessibility into development and testing of ADP’s products going forward, including procedures for manual testing, fixing Accessibility barriers prior to release of updates, and addressing accessibility-related bugs discovered post-release in a manner consistent with non-accessibility-related bugs of the same functional severity.
  • Provide training to ADP TotalSource employees and agents who provide user-side customer service to LightHouse on how to assist individuals who use screen readers with access to ADP’s products, including best practices when providing training to people with disabilities and specific instruction on providing technical assistance to screen reader users with respect to ADP TotalSource products.
  • Within two years, ensure that its web and mobile applications comply substantially with the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), version 2.1.

LightHouse, a non-profit organization based in San Francisco that promotes the independence, equality and self-reliance of people who are blind or have low vision, purchased ADP’s Workforce Now human resources and payroll products and services in October 2017. Blind employees, who make up a significant portion of LightHouse’s staff, immediately began having trouble using the Workforce Now website and mobile app to perform HR-related tasks—tasks that the ADP product was meant to streamline, like punching in and out, requesting time off, and approving time off requests.

Websites and mobile applications can easily be made accessible for individuals who use screen readers—which interact with the app’s or website’s digital elements, such as images, text, buttons, links, and headings, and convert that information into audible synthesized speech or output that information on a digital braille display. Many companies and organizations, for example in the banking and informational technology fields, have successfully made their products and services compatible with screen readers and assistive technologies.

Disability: Case Area: ,