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helps marketing teams navigate their organization’s legal risk. Click here to download the entire Tool Kit, and tune in to the Ad Law Tool Kit Show podcast, to hear the authors of this chapter dive deeper into website accessibility in this week’s episode.

Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination based on disability by “public accommodations.” The explosion of online commerce has forced the question: Does Title III apply to websites?

In a few jurisdictions, Title III applies only if the website has a nexus to an actual physical space. For instance, the California Court of Appeals recently issued a decision finding that the websites of “online-only” businesses are not places of public accommodation under the ADA or state law. It is a bit early to tell, but the decision is expected to substantially reduce the volume of website accessibility lawsuits filed in California. Organizations should keep in mind, however, that a plaintiff may still satisfy the “nexus” requirement when a website contains information about a brick-and-mortar location, such as store hours, or goods sold at a company’s store.Continue Reading Website Accessibility: An Excerpt from the Advertising Law Tool Kit

Any organization with a publicly-facing website—in other words, virtually any organization—should be aware that the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recently published its most recent update to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, titled WCAG 2.1. The W3C is a private organization that develops website accessibility standards.

As you may now know, in recent years, the WCAG 2.0 has become the widely accepted industry standard of technical requirements for making websites, mobile apps, and other digital content accessible to persons with disabilities. Although the Department of Justice (DOJ) has yet to adopt the WCAG 2.0 as the applicable standard for the private sector, governmental and private plaintiffs increasingly urge adopting WCAG 2.0 AA as the standard by which to measure a website’s accessibility—and more and more courts and agencies do so.Continue Reading New Website Accessibility Guidelines: W3C Publishes WCAG 2.1

Is your website covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act? The short answer is: possibly. This area of the law continues to evolve, with differences from jurisdiction to jurisdiction based on the type of website. But make no mistake: lawsuits alleging lack of website accessibility are hot. The most common allegation is that the company…