In a new article, Thomas Woods and Corey Day provide Corporate Counsel with their insights on how claims against businesses with website accessibility issues for visually handicapped persons are currently addressed under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and how disability statutes enacted in several states, while often borrowing the framework of the ADA, are expanding its possible penalties.
Litigators Woods and Day note that when the ADA was enacted more than 30 years ago, it contained no mention of the internet. However, though congress has not added website accessibility requirements to the ADA, all federal courts have held that it does apply to websites. Laws in some states, such as California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, guarantee damages for a proven violation of the ADA, as well as removing a business’s ability to moot a claim by updating its website.
The authors underline the importance for a business of taking steps to ensure its website is and remains accessible to visually impaired potential customers. They conclude: “So if you want to ensure compliance it’s best to hire a company that provides regular compliance audits and, if your company does any website updates in house, provides the training necessary to ensure those updates do not break compliance. As with most things in life, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
You can read the full article here.