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NEWS: Funimation Sued in Class-Action Lawsuit for Allegations of Violating Americans with Disabiliti


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GeorgH



Joined: 15 Mar 2016
Posts: 64
PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2021 5:16 pm Reply with quote
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Jenisa+Angeles%22+lawsuit

Guess it's not her first lawsuit.
The Funimation Shop has several other significant issues, including the ban of foreign IP adresses resulting in the fact, that European anime fans interested in Funimations products cannot check which of their titles are Region B/2 (and shop.funimation.com is the only official source for this prior to the street date)
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Madster





PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2021 5:20 pm Reply with quote
If this lawsuit makes FUNimation's website actually usable (even if it's just the shop), then I'm all for it.
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varmintx



Joined: 31 Jul 2006
Posts: 1235
Location: Covington, KY
PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2021 5:23 pm Reply with quote
I didn't know you could sue for having a website that sucks for us blind folks. Look out, world, I'm gonna be bringing so many of these f***ing lawsuits, the litigation will never end!
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Giant_Robo_28



Joined: 27 Jan 2012
Posts: 52
Location: Chicago
PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2021 5:25 pm Reply with quote
I "own" a few titles on Funimation's website and it's quite possibly the worst player in existence, so if this gets them to build a better player and UI to go with it, I'm all in.
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Albion Hero



Joined: 19 Oct 2019
Posts: 96
PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2021 5:25 pm Reply with quote
I'm all for supporting disability rights, but getting angry a TV show service, a completely visual medium, isn't giving you all the support to view blindly seems to be dying on the wrong hill. Theres only so much you can do to be disability friendly to blind people.
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Romuska
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Joined: 02 Mar 2004
Posts: 813
PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2021 5:27 pm Reply with quote
They can't afford a good site. After all they're only the largest anime distribution company in North America.....yup. Seriously, Funi's level of incompetency is legendary at this point.
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AksaraKishou



Joined: 16 May 2015
Posts: 1414
Location: End of the World
PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2021 5:28 pm Reply with quote
Albion Hero wrote:
I'm all for supporting disability rights, but getting angry a TV show service, a completely visual medium, isn't giving you all the support to view blindly seems to be dying on the wrong hill. Theres only so much you can do to be disability friendly to blind people.


Didn't know Anime had no audio. The things you learn hum. Just like movies amirite.
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ATastySub
Past ANN Contributor


Joined: 19 Jan 2012
Posts: 693
PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2021 5:41 pm Reply with quote
Albion Hero wrote:
I'm all for supporting disability rights, but getting angry a TV show service, a completely visual medium, isn't giving you all the support to view blindly seems to be dying on the wrong hill. Theres only so much you can do to be disability friendly to blind people.

The lawsuit is literally about their shop page, but I guess there's only so much you can do to be friendly to those who won't read.
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zero-r



Joined: 24 Mar 2016
Posts: 34
PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2021 5:42 pm Reply with quote
There are plenty of "shop" websites (for even bigger companies) that do not complied the Americans with Disabilities Act. This isn't shocking at all and shouldn't be shocking to anyone else to be honest.... Also, this lawsuit is DOA. Case close.
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Primus



Joined: 01 Mar 2006
Posts: 2822
Location: Toronto
PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2021 5:57 pm Reply with quote
Albion Hero wrote:
I'm all for supporting disability rights, but getting angry a TV show service, a completely visual medium, isn't giving you all the support to view blindly seems to be dying on the wrong hill. Theres only so much you can do to be disability friendly to blind people.


Her issue is with Funimation's online store. It seems to hide the text in ways that can't be picked up by the software she uses to browse the internet. If you check their site, you'll see a lot of the page consists of images with no accompanying text.

The lawsuit alleges this was intentional, but it almost certainly was some web designer's attempt at a clean aesthetic.
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SlamMan



Joined: 02 Dec 2015
Posts: 64
PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2021 6:09 pm Reply with quote
I don't usually comment on things like this as I feel this is a matter for the courts but for her to claim that Funimation "engaged in acts of intentional discrimination" with their crappy site is like saying that a store that wasn't timely in fixing their auto door opener is intentionally discriminating. I'm not defending Funimation but to say it is intentional implies that all the crap wrong with Funimation's website is intentional which it clearly is not (if it is they are intentionally discriminating against every person that exists). Funimation may have its head up its rear when it comes to websites and apps but I wouldn't say they intentionally discriminate because of it. Maybe this situation will be a wakeup call to them about the quality of their websites.

For the record, I may not be legally blind but my eyesight is bad enough that I am not allowed to drive without corrective lenses. I don't consider sites with ridiculously small print or hard to read font colour choices to be discriminating against me.

To sum it up: Incompetence is not intentional discrimination in my books.
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Agent355



Joined: 12 Dec 2008
Posts: 5113
Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready...
PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2021 6:18 pm Reply with quote
On accessibility, one thing I want to give Funi credit for is that they actually include closed captioning tracks for their dubs, as in, caption tracks that match the dub dialogue. Netflix requires users to pick 1 subtitle track for their language, they don't have closed captioning that matches the dubs. Crunchyroll and VRV don't seem to allow any text tracks when choosing dubs. It's a small detail that makes a big difference.

In general, fandom spaces have a long way to go to be more inclusive towards people with disabilities.
Albion Hero wrote:
I'm all for supporting disability rights, but getting angry a TV show service, a completely visual medium, isn't giving you all the support to view blindly seems to be dying on the wrong hill. Theres only so much you can do to be disability friendly to blind people.


There are many ways blind and visually impaired people can enjoy "completely visual mediums," including listening to the audio track of a show or movie, or via an Audio Description service (check Netflix, audio description is available for a lot of TV shows and most movies)
It would be awesome if anime companies can start adding audio descriptions to their shows! But as others have pointed out, this lawsuit is only asking that Funimation's online store, which sells Blu Rays, T-shirts and other items, include text description tags for the photos of the items they sell
Quote:
What is Audio Description?
Audio Description involves the accessibility of the visual images of theater, television, movies, and other art forms for people who are blind, have low vision, or who are otherwise visually impaired. It is a narration service (provided at no additional charge to the patron) that attempts to describe what the sighted person takes for granted -- those images that a person who is blind or visually impaired formerly could only experience through the whispered asides from a sighted companion.

In theaters, in museums, and accompanying television, film, and video presentations, Audio Description is commentary and narration which guides the listener through the presentation with concise, objective descriptions of new scenes, settings, costumes, body language, and "sight gags," all slipped in between portions of dialogue or songs.

The Federal Government defines Audio Description as follows in its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for updating the US Access Board's Section 508 Standards, Section E103.4, published February 22, 2015:

Audio Description. Narration added to the soundtrack to describe important visual details that cannot be understood from the main soundtrack alone. Audio description is a means to inform individuals who are blind or who have low vision about visual content essential for comprehension. Audio description of video provides information about actions, characters, scene changes, on-screen text, and other visual content. Audio description supplements the regular audio track of a program. Audio description is usually added during existing pauses in dialogue. Audio description is also called “video description” and “descriptive narration”.

Source: https://www.acb.org/adp/ad.html#what
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Zendervai



Joined: 06 Apr 2012
Posts: 201
PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2021 6:35 pm Reply with quote
SlamMan wrote:
I don't usually comment on things like this as I feel this is a matter for the courts but for her to claim that Funimation "engaged in acts of intentional discrimination" with their crappy site is like saying that a store that wasn't timely in fixing their auto door opener is intentionally discriminating. I'm not defending Funimation but to say it is intentional implies that all the crap wrong with Funimation's website is intentional which it clearly is not (if it is they are intentionally discriminating against every person that exists). Funimation may have its head up its rear when it comes to websites and apps but I wouldn't say they intentionally discriminate because of it. Maybe this situation will be a wakeup call to them about the quality of their websites.

To sum it up: Incompetence is not intentional discrimination in my books.


It depends. Has Funimation been alerted to this problem on prior occasions and chose to not do anything about it? Because a lawsuit like this is rarely a first step, generally the lawyer will make an effort to reach out to the company in breach and ask them politely to fix it. If Funimation is aware of the problems and refused to fix them (not really that surprising, considering how long it takes them to address other problems, if they're addressed at all) then it changes from incompetence to being deliberate. Because someone knew about the problems and refused to do something about it.

And to the people wondering why a visually impaired person might need to access the store, even if they themselves don't generally watch anime, they might have friends or family who do and who would like something from the store as a present, that sort of thing. There's a lot of reasons someone might access the store beyond that they just like anime.
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iamthevastuniverse





PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2021 6:44 pm Reply with quote
Funimation's site has never been great its common knowledge among anime fans for over a decade now. I understand this person's problem but to sue Funimation for it is extreme and a waste of time.
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-SP-





PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2021 7:14 pm Reply with quote
Albion Hero wrote:
I'm all for supporting disability rights, but getting angry a TV show service, a completely visual medium, isn't giving you all the support to view blindly seems to be dying on the wrong hill. Theres only so much you can do to be disability friendly to blind people.

And guess what? The Funimation shop sell DVDs and Blu-rays which Blind people can still listen to.


Last edited by -SP- on Tue Feb 09, 2021 6:41 pm; edited 1 time in total
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