“Many [ADA Website] lawsuits lack merit and are intended to bully your business into a nuisance value settlement.”
So you’ve received a letter, or worse a complaint, alleging that your business’s website has violated Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act. ADA website lawsuits can be scary, but you are not without options. First and foremost, contact a lawyer with experience defending website disability claims before you respond or make a payment of any kind. Many of these lawsuits lack merit and are intended to bully your business into a nuisance value settlement. The ADA serves a crucial and noble purpose, but protecting against discrimination is not the underlying goal of many website-related lawsuits. These claims are instead designed to elicit a quick payday from businesses, regardless of whether the business actually fixes the deficiencies alleged in the complaint. Finding an experienced attorney to defend you against these claims is the best way to make sure that plaintiffs, often called testers, don’t smell blood in the water.
Hallmarks of a Nuisance ADA Claim
Website testers and their lawyers start by sending intimidating demand letters to businesses or by filing a complaint with the court, claiming that the business’s website has deficient features that violate Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act. These documents will recite that the broad, over-arching purpose of the ADA is to eliminate discrimination against the disabled. They will claim a class action lawsuit against your business, and will likely include a claim for monetary damages. These complaints are bloated with lofty language but are often lacking in merit. They are explicitly designed not to hold up under scrutiny, but to scare your business into settling before a judge ever gets involved.
Nuisance claims will allege that your website violates the ADA because certain photographs on the site are missing alternative text (this is text embedded in the site that reads a description of the photo to a web user’s screen reader) or contain broken links that limit accessibility to the blind. Rarely though, do these complaints explain how or why these supposed deficiencies are limiting. Don’t let these claims scare you. The bark is often worse than the bite.
Common Myths of ADA Website Lawsuits.
Plaintiffs in ADA website cases often misconstrue the purpose of the ADA. The Americans with Disabilities Act, specifically Title III, is intended to eliminate discrimination on the basis of disability by requiring businesses to make reasonable accommodations for covered disabilities – like blindness, deafness, or those using wheelchairs. For example, a restaurant must provide a method by which the visually impaired can access its menu. Restaurants, though, need not provide its menus in Braille. Instead, the business need only send a waiter over to help them read the menu. See 28 C.F.R. Pt. 36, App. C. The same can be said for website features, though the question remains unanswered at court. Despite the uncertainties surrounding ADA website litigation, there are several objective myths that should be dispelled.
Plaintiffs Cannot Sue For Money Damages Under the ADA.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys often file ADA website complaints that allege a class action. This is because, under the ADA, plaintiffs in private rights of action are not entitled to damages. 42 U.S.C. § 12188(a). They can only ask the court to force a business to comply with the ADA. Some lawyers file a class action suit in order to scare defendants. These claims often lack real substance and are designed to intimidate businesses into monetary settlements that plaintiffs would otherwise be unlikely win in court.
Websites are Not Conclusively Determined to Fit Under the Scope of Title III.
Nuisance ADA lawsuits hope unsuspecting businesses believe that websites are conclusively under the umbrella of ADA regulations. This is not inherently true. There are significant indicators in the ADA to suggest that websites were not intended to be what are called “places of public accommodation,” which is a status businesses must satisfy to be liable under Title III. This question does not have a definitive answer, but many courts have held that websites are not covered by these regulations. Where your jurisdiction falls on this question can influence the strategy of your defense, but it is not dispositive.
Your Website Does Not Need to be Perfect, Just Reasonably Accessible.
Regardless of websites’ statuses as places of public accommodation, plaintiffs cannot sue you for just any limitations. Any deficiencies they experience when using a website must discriminate on the basis of their disability, and there must not be reasonable, alternative accommodations available. Remember the restaurant menus? Simply not providing a menu in Braille isn’t enough to render a business liable if it has other means of helping customers access their goods and services. Well, the same should go for websites. The mere fact that a disabled person could not access a feature on a website is not alone sufficient to suggest your website violates the ADA. For example, broken links can inhibit one’s ability to access a web feature regardless of any disability. The ultimate threshold should state: but for one’s disability, a website deficiency would not have limited the person’s ability to enjoy equal access to the underlying goods or services. Many ADA website suits are full of generalizations, claiming that any possible deficiency is a violation in order to make their suit more threatening. But threats do not equal victory, and no universal standard has emerged regarding ADA website claims. Merit maketh the man… or claim… and many of these lawsuits are hollow, lacking the substance necessary to actually defeat your business in court.
Further, many plaintiffs use the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1) as a standard by which to judge website accessibility. This too is misleading. The WCAG themselves state that the guidelines are not able to address all aspects of each disability. The WCAG are intended to serve as guideposts for accessibility, not a rock upon which to break businesses. The purpose of the ADA is to eliminate discrimination against the disabled, not to police every single website feature regardless of how it affects access to the goods and services sold thereon.
Ultimately, you should never take a lawsuit lightly. Litigation can be costly, and ADA website suits are not a cut and dry issue. But that does not mean your business needs to be bullied by those looking to abuse the system. The ADA serves a crucial role in protecting our communities, but there are those who would use it as a cash grab to take advantage of businesses. The first and most important step to solving a dispute regarding your website’s accessibility is to contact an ADA website defense attorney.
If you have received a letter or complaint claiming your website violates the Americans with Disabilities Act, reach out to Darkhorse Attorneys today to schedule a consultation.
The contents of this post do not constitute legal advice, and no client-attorney relationship is formed. The contents of this post are offered for educational purposes only. Every situation is unique. If you require legal assistance, submit an inquiry through our website or call our firm at 540-553-8149.
