A Tangled Web. ADA questions remain over web accessibility cases and the lack of DOJ regulations

• Author: Amanda Robert
• Pages: 16-18

A Tangled Web

ADA questions remain over web accessibility cases

and the lack of DOJ regulations

By Amanda Robert

Karla Gilbride kept

getting lost while tr y-

ing to navigate unla-

beled buttons and

unorganized gr aphics

when searching online

for someone to handle her wedding

registry a nd invitations.

Gilbride, who is blind and uses a

screen reader, refuses to m ake even

one-time purchases fr om companies

with unnavigable website s. She can’t

walk into a store and se e products on

the shelves, but she can scroll down a

page and learn about them if a web -

site is accessible.

“It is something I deal with ever y

day in my life, try ing to purchase

things online and do my job and get

around the internet,” says Gilbride,

a sta at torney at Public Justice , a

nonprofi t legal advocac y organiza-

tion in Washington, D.C. “I encoun-

ter frustrat ions daily with roadblocks

to using the internet, wh ich could be

such a gateway to leveling the play-

ing fi eld.”

Disability rights a dvocates say

web accessibility—the prac tice of

designing and coding website s so

that people with disabil ities can use

them—can be accomplished th rough

simple changes, such as chang-

ing color contrast and adding v ideo

captions.

However, the legal landscape

surrounding web acce ssibility has

become more complex.

The Americans w ith Disabilities

Act, signed into law in 1990,

requires in Title III that businesses

serving as “pla ces of public accom-

modation” remove barriers to acc ess

for people with disabilities.

Under the ADA, places of public

accommodation include restau rants,

theaters, retai l stores and more . The

law does not explicitly addres s the

internet or mobile applications, leav-

ing courts around t he country to

decide how the law applies to com-

mercial websites.

Despite calls for cla rity, the

Department of Justice, the federa l

agency responsible for enforcing the

ADA, has not provided regulations

on the scope of the law in terms of

web accessibility.

Related lawsuits have also

increased dra matically, with the

vast majority fi led by a small

The Docket

EDITED BY BLAIR CHAVIS / BLAIR.CHAVIS@AMERICANBAR.ORG

SHUTTERSTOCK

National

Pulse

16 || ABA JOURNAL JULY-AUGUST 2019