News

ADA lawsuit ends with consent decree

June 18, 2012

Pittsburgh-based Century Heritage FCU, last week signed a consent decree in federal court that will result in the dismissal of a class-action lawsuit claiming that the FI's ATMs failed to comply with new ADA regulations.

According to a report at CUNA.org, the lawsuit was brought by an attorney representing Robert Jahoda, 30, a visually impaired man who has filed at least 17 ADA-related lawsuits since March 15 of this year when the 2010 ADA regulations became enforceable.

Jahoda's lawsuits single out ATMs that the plaintiff claims "are not, and have never been, speech enabled, or they have a speech-enabling feature that is not functional." Also, said the CUNA report, the suits claim that some ATM input keys do not meet requirements, and that the ATMs do not provide auxiliary aids or services for full accessibility.

In its consent decree, the credit union agreed in the decree to update its ATMs within 90 days to achieve compliance with ADA requirements relating to blind and visually impaired individuals. The credit union will submit 12 monthly statements to Jahoda's attorney attesting that the ATMs remain in compliance and that voice guidance is working properly at all ATMs.

The agreement stipulates that Century Heritage does not admit liability and states that it always intended to comply with all aspects of the ADA requirements.

For more on this topic, visit the ADA compliance research center.