Skip to Main Content
Services Talent Knowledge
Site Search
Menu

News

September 7, 2023

Rob Thorpe Interviewed for Economist Article on Website Accessibility Lawsuits

Rob Thorpe, partner, was interviewed for the Economist article “An Explosion of Lawsuits Is Not Making Websites More Accessible” about lawsuits that aim to enforce the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), which have seen a significant uptick in the past five years. Many people who file these claims are known as serial plaintiffs, and nearly all of these lawsuits settle before they reach trial.

The ADA only mandates “effective communication,” meaning the ADA itself provides businesses with little guidance on how to build compliant websites. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines provide minimum standards, although they haven’t been adopted by the ADA. Using overlays and plug-ins don’t preclude businesses from facing website accessibility lawsuits. In order to have accessible websites, businesses should audit their site, design fixes, and manually testing those fixes.

It is rather unclear whether these lawsuits contribute positively or negatively to progress. Rob provided two avenues for curbing these lawsuits:

  1. Requiring plaintiffs to issue notice, which would give the offending business the opportunity to fix the problem before it is sued
  2. specific requirements for ADA-compliant websites provided by the Department of Justice

Subscribers to the Economist can read the full article here.
 

Subscribe

Click here to sign up for alerts, blog posts, and firm news.

Featured Media

Alerts

EPA Issues Memorandum Reminding States and Tribes of Their Limited Authority Under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act

Alerts

Non-Judicial Collateral Remedies, Part 2 – Sale of Collateral

Alerts

NYS Court of Appeals Applies the Assumption of Risk Doctrine to One Golf Course Injury but Not Another

Alerts

Bankruptcy Avoidance Actions, Part 2 – Fraudulent Transfers

Alerts

NYS Court of Appeals: CVA Plaintiff Must Prove Notice of Abuse Applying Then-Prevailing Standards in Decades-Old Sexual Abuse Case

Alerts

Website Accessibility Lawsuits: Several "Tester" Plaintiffs—Darnell Williams, Tanisia Bowman, Dominique Tompkins, Kimberly Miller, and Judith Adela Fernandez Martinez—Targeting Businesses in Recent Flurry of Lawsuits