Wheelchair users among disabled shoppers planning to launch class action against supermarkets
After hundreds of disabled shoppers complained that supermarkets have refused to provide assistance during the pandemic, disability and accessibility legal specialist Fry Law has confirmed it is planning to launch a class action.
The case, which has been described as potentially being the largest of its kind, comes as over 200 wheelchair users and people with visual impairments have claimed that they have been discriminated against under the Equality Act.
According to the pursuers, supermarkets failed to make reasonable adjustments allowing them to be able to shop safely during the coronavirus pandemic.
Accusations made by the complainants include refusal by staff to help in stores or prevented from entering stores with a companion, not being provided with any seating for long periods of queueing outside of shops and an inability to use common assistive technologies such as screen-readers on websites.
Fry Law’s founder, Chris Fry, said that he understood that it had received the highest amount of cases on a single issue and that it may become the largest consumer-related discrimination case on record.
“I can’t think of any other situation where in terms of disability rights in a consumer context there has ever been such a high number of people challenging over the same issues, so we are breaking new ground on this,” he said.
The law firm has suggested that a legal challenge against supermarkets failing to make reasonable adjustments would be successful and is taking on cases on a no-win, no fee basis.
It comes as supermarkets scrambled to introduce new measures at the start of the pandemic to adhere to the government’s lockdown measures, including implementing social distancing in stores.
According to Fry Law, complaints have been levelled at all major supermarket chains.
It comes as assistive tech company Neatebox offered its Welcome solution – designed specifically for companies to better cater to the needs of disabled consumers – for free to supermarkets across the UK.
Disabled shoppers that have experienced discrimination can file their case with Fry Law online.
