A few months ago we sent out an email concerning the legal challenges and lawsuits that are happening more and more due to ADA noncompliance on websites.
You can read some information we posted regarding ADA Compliance here.
But in July 2024, the Wall Street Journal presented an in-depth article regarding the lawsuits happening more and more often to small businesses – not corporations, but small businesses with less than 50 employees.
The article is behind a paywall, and if you have a subscription you may read the entire article. Also, Apple News has the article – you can find it here.
Some of the highlights from the articl, written by Ruth Simon and Cordilia James, include this interview with Bob Kramer:
“It came out of the blue,” said Kramer, who can spend a month or more creating a single knife. In the lawsuit, the plaintiff said she was unable to purchase a knife case. She never called or emailed, said Kramer, who has one employee at the Bellingham, Wash., company.”
“The lawsuit was one of more than 1,100 web-accessibility cases brought in the U.S. last year by Mizrahi Kroub. The New York law firm, which has nine lawyers, is the largest filer of these cases, accounting for roughly one-quarter of digital ADA cases, according to UsableNet, a provider of web-accessibility services.”
“Mizrahi Kroub is part of a cottage industry that has sprung up around website accessibility. It includes plaintiffs who bring these lawsuits and their lawyers; defense lawyers who represent those sued; and consulting firms and software vendors that monitor and update websites.”
This business is not a big corporate entity and doesn’t do millions of dollars a year in revenue. But small businesses are being pursued by law firms who have developed this means as the 21st-century version of ‘ambulance-chasing.’ They file multiple lawsuits per day, and multiple lawsuits per person.
Continued from the WSJ Article:
“Part of the problem we keep raising is that there’s no standard governing [website] accessibility under the ADA [for private businesses],” said Robert Thorpe, a lawyer in Syracuse, N.Y., who has defended web-accessibility cases. “It’s created this niche market for these type of cases.”
At Thin Air Web, we have been saying this for a few years. There is no standard from which a website can be deemed ‘compliant’ because there are no standard best practices for private businesses. There are many regulations for government and nonprofit entities.
“Small businesses often don’t know whether they are in compliance and what to do when they are sued. Plaintiffs’ lawyers “can get away with telling somebody that they’re breaking the law and that person has no way to know,” says Lucy Greco, an accessibility evangelist at the University of California, Berkeley.”
We have been working with a well-known accessibility company that serves more than a million clients helping to bring websites into the latest ‘known’ compliance issues, and even will help provide documentation if you are involved in a lawsuit.
The additional cost of the service can help provide you with some peace of mind and assurance of the best practices in website design today.
Do not assume that your website design is currently in line with best practices, or that you are protected from potential grievances. Just because you might be on a recognized platform (e.g. WordPress, etc) doesn’t mean you have no potential risk.
We have a scan tool that can be used to assess your website vulnerability and would be happy to help you review and determine a course of action for updated design and functionality.
Call or email to find out more!
