ADA Website Compliance in New York: Here’s What You Need To Know
If your business has an online presence, you must observe ADA website compliance. New York companies, in particular, take significant risks if they do not make an effort to consider it, as New York is one of the states with the most serial litigant activity.
What is the ADA, and why is it important, especially to New York business owners? What are its advantages and disadvantages for my business and its website?
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
ADA stands for the Americans with Disabilities Act. This landmark civil rights law was passed by the Bush administration in 1990.
It focuses on accessibility to protect persons with disabilities against discrimination. Due to this federal law, both government offices and private businesses must ensure that any considered barriers to access are removed to provide equal opportunities to all.
There are five Titles under this law. This discussion will particularly focus on the third section of the ADA, which is most important for New York business websites.
ADA Website Compliance in New York
Title III of the ADA specifically covers businesses that operate at a physical location, as these are places of public accommodations.
Seyfarth Shaw, a firm that annually quantifies the number of lawsuits filed for Title III, has observed marked increases every year since they started recording accessibility violations a decade ago.
Between 2017 and 2018, there was a significant 177% rise in lawsuits for ADA compliance, with a temporary lull between 2018 and 2019. Furthermore, despite numerous closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic since the start of 2020, there was still a 12% increase in lawsuits compared to the 2019 tally.
In the country, New York has led in the number of lawsuits, followed by Florida and California. In the same report, Seyfarth pointed to the focus of New York attorneys on Braille gift card lawsuits to explain the rise in New York cases.
The surge really began in 2017 after New York federal judges allowed website accessibility cases to proceed to discovery.
Website Accessibility
It is important to remember that the ADA was written long before the internet became an institution. The internet is a significant part of our lives for many of us, from the moment we wake up until the moment before we go to sleep.
However, just because the ADA does not specifically spell out the internet in its minimum anti-discrimination requirements does not mean that damages cannot be claimed for web accessibility violations.
In fact, the Department of Justice made this position crystal clear in this 2018 letter, stating:
The Department first articulated its interpretation that the ADA applies to public accommodations' websites over 20 years ago. This interpretation is consistent with the ADA's title III requirement that the goods, services, privileges, or activities provided by places of public accommodation be equally accessible to people with disabilities.
Even without direct guidance from the Department of Justice, there is no doubt that accessibility requirements should also apply to web content. Millions of people access websites every day, and websites should accommodate users anticipating all kinds of needs that barriers may hamper.
For example, a website can prove to be inaccessible if it cannot provide closed captioning for audio in videos or alternate text for images used throughout. These are some of the basic accessibility requirements business websites should observe to avoid unnecessary litigation.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
When it comes to website accessibility, the legal rules are not explicitly included in the ADA. However, courts are increasingly referring to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) for guidance regarding legal claims for online accessibility non-compliance.
The WCAG is written by the World Wide Web Consortium, which pools resources from various web organizations to establish these international standards. Currently, the WCAG 2.2 is in development and is set to be released later in 2022. The latest acknowledged version of these standards is WCAG 2.1.
ADA Compliance for Websites Today
The basic rights of the ordinary consumer must be acknowledged, not just for the legal fees you might have to pay, but also for the bigger market you can welcome through compliance with the laws.
In the U.S., there are at least 61 million Americans currently living with disabilities, according to the CDC.
If you have a business that provides goods and services to the general populace, it must comply with the ADA. Furthermore, if your New York business has a website address, it must comply with the WCAG 2.1.
Every day, you must expect that at least one user visiting your online pages might have a disability, whether through sight, hearing, or learning difficulties. Make no mistake about it, online accessibility is now mandatory, and it will increasingly become so as more people seek essential goods through online means.
Today, there are many ways to check if your website is accessible to all users. You might even be able to do this on your own through manual testing. However, for the best legal guidance, you can seek a free service like the one provided by ADA Compliance Pros.