In an era of increasing digital dependence, the accessibility of websites is becoming a pressing issue, especially for individuals with disabilities. The surge in lawsuits over the accessibility of websites highlights the challenges faced by disabled Americans in accessing essential services and resources online. From federal laws to the practical implications for businesses, the debate around website accessibility is gaining momentum and raising important questions about digital inclusion and equal access for all.
You may have seen the news around this, but here’s a recent article from the Economist:
Lawsuits over disabled Americans’ access to websites have surged
They aren’t making sites easier to use, but some people are profiting
Bill dengler is trying to become an Italian citizen. He has all the documents ready to go. But Mr Dengler, an American software engineer who was born fully blind, cannot make an appointment with the Italian consulate in San Francisco. Its booking system uses a colour-based calendar, which is not legible to his screen reader, a device that delivers a website’s content in audio form. And, perhaps because slots fill rapidly, rules prohibit him from hiring someone to make the appointment on his behalf.
What are Mr Dengler’s options? This being America, he could, of course, sue. The government largely relies on private citizens and their obliging lawyers to enforce the Americans with Disabilities Act (ada), the federal law passed 33 years ago to protect the civil rights of disabled people. This deputisation has resulted in tonnes of litigation, some of which has done more for lawyers than for disabled people. In the past five years, website-accessibility lawsuits have surged to comprise about a fifth of such claims. According to Usablenet, a company that both tracks litigation and sells services to help clients prevent it, plaintiffs have filed more than 16,700 digital-accessibility lawsuits in state and federal court since 2018.
The ada only permits plaintiffs to recover attorneys’ fees. But New York and California, where the vast majority of cases are brought, allow plaintiffs to tack on state-level claims to their federal cases and sue for damages. The financial incentives for both plaintiffs and lawyers are hard to ignore. “I think that this was a gravy train that people jumped on,” says David Stein, who defends businesses. The country’s most active law firm, according to Usablenet, appears to have been founded in 2020; the fourth-most-prolific opened in 2021. Serial plaintiffs abound. In a single month in 2018 a blind man in Queens filed 43 lawsuits. In the year from January 2022, six people, represented by one law firm, brought 435 suits. The most active plaintiffs in 2021 and 2022 filed over 100 lawsuits each, according to Accessibility.com, which also tracks litigation.
While the ada orders businesses to add wheelchair ramps, it has never set out precisely how they should design their websites—it simply mandates “effective communication”. Nearly 5% of America’s population is blind or has low vision (uncorrectable with glasses). Making the web broadly usable was always the goal: at the First International World Wide Web conference in 1994, Tim Berners-Lee, the father of the internet, called upon pioneers to prioritise “this feeling that the web is totally accessible to everybody”.
Given this, you may have the following questions:
What is web accessibility?
Web accessibility refers to making websites usable for people with disabilities. It involves designing and developing websites in a way that people with disabilities, such as those with visual, auditory, motor, and cognitive impairments, can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the website and its content.
Web accessibility ensures that everyone has equal access to information and services on the web, regardless of their abilities. This includes individuals who use assistive technologies, such as screen readers, to access the web.
What are the benefits of web accessibility for a financial or wealth management website?
Tax Credits
It is important to know that the U.S. government has chosen to promote and support businesses that comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). By making a website accessible, and being accessible may enable your business to be eligible for up to $5,000 in tax credits.
The U.S. government promotes and supports accessibility practices that comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by incentivizing the efforts made and sustained with a tax credit (a credit is an amount subtracted from your overall liability after calculating your taxes). You can receive up to $5,000 a year in tax credits.
The tax credit, listed under Section 44 of the IRS Code, covers 50% of the eligible access expenditures made during the previous tax year, with a maximum expenditure limit of $10,250. There is no credit for the first $250 of the expenditures, so it is subtracted accordingly. Therefore, the highest amount of credit a business can receive is $5,000.
The ADA tax credit benefit is available to businesses that meet one of the following conditions:
1. The business generated $1,000,000 or less during the year before filing
2. The business employs 30 or fewer full-time employees.
What are the benefits of an accessible website?
1. Mitigate Legal Risk: In 2021, the number of web-related lawsuits in the U.S. saw a 320% increase over the past eight years; the average settlement costs around $30,000. An accessible website could save you time and money that would be spent settling a potential lawsuit.
2. Optimize your website’s reach: Make your website accessible to 15% of the population who are an underserved and loyal group of consumers. Doing so helps you reduce bounce rates and maximizes your site's reach with enhanced search visibility.
3. It’s the right thing to do: The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion social movement is growing exponentially. Accessibility is a human right, and brands that prioritize it send a clear, positive message that they care about all members of their communities.
4. Receive tax incentives: There is up to a $5,000 tax credit available to business owners that invest in accessibility (watch this video).