Why and How Are There So Many Digital Accessibility Demand Letters?
By Rick Hoel
Published February 23, 2021
There were thousands of web accessibility lawsuits filed in 2020 in Federal Court and California State Court under the Unruh Act, according to the Complete Report: 2020 Website Accessibility Lawsuit Recap. New York and California were the most “popular” states for claims. While California requires the same form of non-discrimination as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the state also permits claimants to recover damages beyond attorney’s fees, a remedy not afforded by the ADA.
Somewhat surprisingly, we tracked slightly fewer website accessibility lawsuits in 2020 than the 2,260 filed in 2019. The decrease is likely due in part to the many pandemic related court closures throughout the country in the first half of 2020. Lawsuit filings picked up in the later half of the year with filings in December 2020 the highest on record.
The vast majority of accessibility lawsuits have been brought by people with vision disabilities, many of whom access websites with [...]