It just annoys me because I’m not going to order it and I’m abstaining from alcohol. But there’s always some “special deals” being advertised by UberEats on alcohol, as well as meat, dairy and eggs. It’s like they’re really sleazy and desperate to hawk these products.

  • @voracitude
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    1 year ago

    Advertising isn’t covered by the ADA

    But usability is. I’m certain that you understand that Courts interpret laws when judging the merits of a suit, so you must also know that tendency is to hew to the “spirit” of the law rather than adhering strictly to the text. An actual lawsuit would involve therapists and psychologists giving expert opinions on what effect it might have on a person’s recovery if they are offered alcohol with every order, and I am assuming they’d say that kind of exposure would be harmful.

    I thought you might bring up websites. Nobody is talking about making websites that display goods illegal, any more than having them on the shelves should be illegal. This is not equivalent to displaying goods. This is equivalent to the cashier asking if you want to booze-erize your groceries today at checkout, as a store policy.

    A Court may well find it reasonable that having no ability to turn off these ads would set back recovery and effectively prevent a person suffering alcoholism from using the service, while people who do not suffer the disability can use it with no problem. Mandating a toggle for certain kinds of advertisement like alcohol would not be an undue burden (though from a technical perspective, it would probably be easier to just have the toggle disable the checkout offers altogether and that would probably be good enough in the eyes of the Court).

    In my view it would fall under “Denial of Participation” (emphasis mine):

    It shall be discriminatory to subject an individual or class of individuals on the basis of a disability or disabilities of such individual or class, directly, or through contractual, licensing, or other arrangements, to a denial of the opportunity of the individual or class to participate in or benefit from the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations of an entity.

    https://www.ada.gov/law-and-regs/ada/#section41

    A Court may well agree with that interpretation after hearing testimony to that effect from expert witnesses; I don’t think it’s as cut-and-dried an issue as you imply above.