Parkwood Entertainment

Beyoncé's website got sued. Even superstars aren't exempt.

In 2019, a blind Beyoncé fan named Mary Conner filed a class action against the singer's company, Parkwood Entertainment. The official Beyoncé website was heavily image-driven — tour dates, merchandise, news — and almost none of it worked with screen readers. Press picked it up because of the celebrity involvement, but the legal issues were identical to any other case.

Parkwood settled and committed to making the site WCAG 2.0 AA compliant. The case became a useful reminder that entertainment, fashion, and lifestyle brands are subject to the exact same rules as retailers and restaurants — often more vulnerable, because heavily visual sites are usually the worst on accessibility.

Court

Southern District of New York

Case

Conner v. Parkwood Entertainment, LLC

1:19-cv-00154

Outcome

Settled (terms confidential)

What went wrong on the site

Each visual below shows what visitors with disabilities actually experienced.

Failure: Missing alt text

Screen reader announces:

"Image. Image. Image."

Product images and key visuals had no alt text — screen readers announced 'image' or the file name instead of describing what users were looking at.

WCAG 1.1.1 Non-text Content

Failure: No keyboard access

Small

Medium

Large

Click only — Tab key does nothing

Core interactions required a mouse. Keyboard-only users could not navigate menus, complete checkout, or operate widgets.

WCAG 2.1.1 Keyboard

Failure: Not screen-reader readable

</div>

No button role. Screen readers skip it entirely.

Dropdown menus were built as plain divs with no ARIA — keyboard and screen-reader users could not open them or choose options.

WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value

Failure: Useless link text

About our pricing: click here

About our pricing: read more

About our pricing: learn more

About our pricing: click here

Screen reader users hear: "Link: click here. Link: click here."

Same destination linked multiple times with no distinguishing labels — disorienting for screen-reader users navigating by link list.

WCAG 2.4.4 Link Purpose

Sources & documentation

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