## Facts

- Access Now, Inc., a disability-rights organization, and Robert Gumson, a blind user of screen-reader software, sued Southwest Airlines Company.
- Southwest operated Southwest.com, an online platform used for airline ticketing and related services.
- Gumson alleged the website’s design was incompatible with screen readers, preventing effective access by visually impaired users.
- Plaintiffs sought declaratory and injunctive relief under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), relying on provisions concerning removal of communication barriers and provision of auxiliary aids and services.

## Issues

1. Whether the appellate court could consider plaintiffs’ ADA Title III challenges when the issues presented on appeal were not properly preserved or presented in the district court record and briefing.
2. (Not reached on appeal) Whether a commercial website used for airline ticketing is a “place of public accommodation” under ADA Title III.

## Decision

- The Eleventh Circuit dismissed the appeal without reaching the ADA merits.
- The court concluded that none of the issues plaintiffs sought to raise on appeal were properly before it due to procedural defects.
- The district court’s Rule 12(b)(6) dismissal remained in effect, but the Eleventh Circuit did not affirm or reject the district court’s ADA reasoning on the merits.

## Legal Principles

- An appellate court may dismiss an appeal or decline to address substantive questions when the issues on appeal are not properly preserved, presented, or developed for review.
- Dismissal on procedural grounds leaves the lower court’s judgment intact without creating appellate precedent on the underlying statutory question.
- (District court ruling left undisturbed) Title III was construed to regulate access to physical, concrete places of public accommodation, not purely virtual spaces; a “virtual ticket counter” website was not treated as a covered place.

## Conclusion

The Eleventh Circuit disposed of the case on procedural grounds, dismissing the appeal because the issues were not properly before the court, thereby leaving in place the district court’s dismissal of the ADA Title III website-accessibility claims without appellate review of the merits.


Access Now, Inc. v. Sw. Airlines Co., 385 F.3d 1324 (11th Cir. 2004)