Epic Systems Corporation
The biggest EHR vendor in America. Blind employees couldn't use it.
Epic Systems makes the electronic health records software that runs most US hospitals. Blind employees at hospitals using Epic couldn't operate the software with screen readers, effectively locking them out of nursing, billing, and administrative jobs. The National Federation of the Blind sued Epic directly.
The federal judge dismissed the case in 2020 on a technicality — the court ruled that Epic, as a software vendor, couldn't be held directly liable for its hospital customers' employment decisions. But the case forced enormous attention on B2B SaaS accessibility. Any enterprise software vendor today must take accessibility seriously, because their hospital, bank, or insurer customers will demand it.
Court
District of Massachusetts
Case
National Federation of the Blind v. Epic Systems Corporation
Not confirmed (original Morse case settled; NFB refiling in Massachusetts)
Outcome
dismissed
What went wrong on the site
Each visual below shows what visitors with disabilities actually experienced.
<div onClick="buy()">
<div>Buy now</div>
</div>
Custom controls had no ARIA roles, so screen readers could not announce what they were or what state they were in.
WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value
Sources & documentation
- Healthcare Dive — Epic found not liable for product inaccessible to blind employee
- Becker's Hospital Review — Epic sued by National Federation of the Blind: 4 things to know
- Modern Healthcare — Epic Systems Corp. disability lawsuit dismissed by federal judge
- Becker's Hospital Review — Blind advocacy group's lawsuit against Epic tossed by judge
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