Places of Public Accommodations (Title III of ADA)
- Federal courts: same patterns
- California state law:
- Martinez v. Cot’N Wash: 2022 CA Ct of Appeals decision
- Martin v. THI E-Commerce, LLC: Jan 2024 CA Ct of Appeals decision
- Both held that Unruh Act, modeled on Title III, doesn’t extend to standalone websites
States/localities (Title II of ADA)
- Service Oklahoma: January 2024 DOJ settlement agreement
- City of Virginia Beach, VA: April 2024 DOJ settlement agreement
- Texas counties voting websites: November 2023 DOJ letters of findings
Education
- University of Illinois Chicago: 2021 settlement agreement covering EIT, procurement, training (2021)
- University of California Berkeley: 2022 consent decree with DOJ covering free online content
- Berkeley Unified School District: 2022 settlement agreement with blind student requires compliance with WCAG
- CUNY: 2023 voluntary compliance agreement with DOJ—individual relief to blind student and system wide changes
- Los Angeles Community College District (ongoing): trial win in May 2023, motion for judgment pending; appeal down the road
Employment
- Orozco v. Garland: Feb 2023 victory in appellate court
- Brought by blind FBI analyst with inaccessible workplace software
- DC Circuit held that Section 508 has private right of action
- Look out for: Customer service technology and AI in workplace
Kiosks
- SSA:
- Complaint filed in 2017 concerning inaccessible check-in kiosks
- Resolved through court-ordered settlement agreement in 2020
- Installation of new kiosks finally completed at end of March 2024
- Quest Diagnostics
- 10/25/23: following bench trial, judge held Quest violated ADA by installing inaccessible self-service kiosks at its labs—ordered to add accessibility features
- Labcorp
- 2/8/24: 9th Cir allows case to proceed as national class action for injunctive relief and CA class for damages
- CVS
- Class action filed in 2/23 regarding MinuteClinic/HealthHub kiosks
- Resolved through structured negotiations earlier this month
- CVS has a year and a half to replace inaccessible MinuteClinic check-in kiosks with accessible alternative (likely tablet)
Entertainment
- Panarra v. HTC: filed 2020 (W.D.N.Y.)
- No captioning in VR content
- April 2022: court denies motion to dismiss; rules web-only business covered under Title III of ADA
- April 2023: case settles
- NAD v. Sirius XM: filed 2021 (S.D.N.Y.) (against Sirius XM, Stitcher, and Pandora)
- Failure to provide transcripts or captions for podcasts
- Brought under Title III of ADA and NY and NYC human rights laws
- Still pending
Overlays
- Lighthouse for the Blind v. ADP TotalSource (CA State Court)- filed Sept 2020; settled Oct 2021:
- Class action against payroll processing and HR company
- Used overlay for accessibility – didn’t work
- Settlement requires accessibility fixes and prohibits use of overlays
- SLAPP suits:
- AudioEye v. Roselli: filed in 2023 in NY state court against digital accessibility expert who spoke out against AudioEye’s false claims that they could make inaccessible sites accessible through overlay
- Settled January 2024 and case dismissed
- AudioEye v. Roselli: filed in 2023 in NY state court against digital accessibility expert who spoke out against AudioEye’s false claims that they could make inaccessible sites accessible through overlay
False Claims Act
- October 2023: Settlement in CA whistleblower case regarding inaccessible CA park reservation system
- CA paid $66 million for park reservation websites—developer told CA system would be accessible
- Developer paid $2.05 million and agreed to fix
Tester Standing
- Laufer v. Acheson Hotels: Tester standing case
- District court dismissed for lack of standing; 1st Cir reversed
- December 2023: Supreme Court vacated and remanded case holding that because Laufer voluntarily dismissed, case was moot