Eatsa, a San Francisco fast-food chain, enables customers to pick up their orders in something resembling a giant vending machine. The company has run into trouble because the orders are normally placed using interactive touch screen kiosks or using a smartphone app. A disability rights advocacy group maintains that this makes it difficult for visually impaired people to order food in this manner.
A federal lawsuit seeking class-action status has been filed against the company. The official complaint is that Eatsa has ignored the needs of thousands of potential blind customers because the system relies on visual-only displays that have no audio or tactile feedback elements.
Eatsa response is that every location has hosts that provide ordering and pickup assistance to visually impaired customers.
Eatsa provides ‘Quicoa bowls’ in individual ‘dispensers’. Image: Eatsa website
