Is Your Touchscreen Card Terminal an ADA Lawsuit Risk?

Can a touchscreen-only card terminal actually get my business sued?

Yes, this has been a real and recurring theory of liability for over a decade, and it’s still active. The core complaint: a flat touchscreen payment terminal with no physical, tactile keypad makes it impossible for a blind customer to enter a debit PIN privately, which forces them to either say their PIN out loud to a cashier or skip the debit option entirely. Courts haven’t settled this cleanly nationwide, but retailers keep getting sued and settling over it, most recently Home Depot.

Who’s actually been sued over this

This isn’t a new or speculative theory. In 2014, a class action filed against Apple by a blind customer, David New, alleged that Apple’s flat touchscreen point-of-sale devices violated Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, because completing a debit purchase required entering a PIN he couldn’t see or feel on the screen. The same year, a separate plaintiff, Robert Jahoda, who is legally blind, filed similar suits against Express, Kroger, J.Crew, and Build-A-Bear, arguing that blind customers were forced to disclose their PIN to a cashier to complete a debit transaction, which also exposed them to a real fraud risk. These suits were built on the same basic fact: tactile, physical keypads were widely available and used across retail, so a flat touchscreen wasn’t the only option, just the one the business picked.

In 2021, three blind Maryland residents and the National Federation of the Blind sued Walmart over its self-checkout kiosks on similar grounds, in a case that also alleged a store employee had selected a cash-back option on one plaintiff’s card and taken funds without her knowledge, the kind of incident that happens when a blind customer has no choice but to hand over control of their own transaction.

Most recently, Home Depot settled a class action (Dalton v. Home Depot U.S.A., Inc., in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota) over payment terminals that lacked audio readouts and tactile keypads, making cash-back transactions impossible for blind customers to complete privately. The settlement is injunctive relief, meaning no cash payout to the class, but it requires Home Depot to upgrade its payment terminal technology across its U.S. stores. A final approval hearing was reported in early 2026.

Why “just use credit instead” hasn’t worked as a defense

A common argument retailers have made is that a blind customer can simply run their card as credit instead of debit, avoiding the PIN entirely, so there’s no real barrier. Courts and the Department of Justice haven’t accepted that as a full defense. The DOJ has filed a Statement of Interest rejecting the related argument that no ADA violation can exist without a specific federal regulation spelling out touchscreen accessibility standards, noting that ADA discrimination isn’t limited to whatever the DOJ’s own regulations happen to cover. Separately, legal commentary following these cases has noted that offering workarounds, like having a cashier enter the PIN for the customer, hasn’t been treated as resolving the underlying accessibility problem, since it still requires the customer to give up their PIN to someone else.

What this means if you’re running a Clover Flex, Mini, or similar touchscreen device

A lot of small and mid-size merchants have moved to compact, all-touchscreen terminals like Clover Flex or Clover Mini because they’re affordable, fast, and easy to use. None of the lawsuits above are about any particular hardware brand; they’re about the underlying design choice of a flat screen with no tactile keypad for PIN entry. If your terminal has no raised, physical keys a blind customer can locate by feel, you have the same basic design the plaintiffs in these cases have challenged elsewhere.

That doesn’t mean swapping hardware tomorrow is required or realistic for most merchants. It does mean this is worth treating as a real operational risk rather than a hypothetical one, especially if you’re a larger retailer or one with multiple locations, which is where plaintiffs’ firms have tended to focus.

A short list of practical options, roughly in order of cost:

• Train staff on a clear, respectful procedure for a blind customer who needs help at checkout, including offering to run the transaction as credit if that avoids a PIN prompt, without assuming that’s a full fix.
• Ask your processor or POS provider whether your specific terminal model offers any accessibility accommodation, such as audio prompts or a detachable physical keypad accessory.
• If you’re due for a hardware refresh, ask specifically about accessibility features for future terminal purchases, not just price and speed. Check our hardware page for current options.
• If you operate in a state or city with an active plaintiffs’ bar on ADA access claims (California is one of the most active), treat this as a standing item for your legal or compliance review, not a one-time check.

The bottom line

This is a genuine, ongoing legal exposure for any merchant using touchscreen-only payment terminals, not a settled or closed issue. It’s been litigated for over ten years, and the most recent major settlement happened within the last year. If your business runs exclusively touchscreen terminals with no accessible alternative for PIN entry, that’s worth a conversation with your POS provider and, if you’re a larger operation, your attorney, rather than assuming it will stay someone else’s problem.

This is general information, not legal advice. Talk to an attorney about your specific equipment and locations.

Sources: Dalton v. Home Depot U.S.A. Inc. settlement coverage, AppleInsider, Top Class Actions, National Federation of the Blind v. Walmart coverage