Long Island Metro Business Action is hosting a breakfast forum May 10 on how businesses can make their websites compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and how to respond if they are faced with a lawsuit claiming their site is not accessible to people with disabilities.
Recent court rulings have fueled lawsuits against companies whose sites are not fully accessible to users with sight or hearing impairments.
Web accessibility lawsuits nearly tripled in number from 2017 to 2018, from 814 to 2,258, according to Seyfarth Shaw, a Chicago-based law firm.
Suits have claimed that, for instance, a blind or deaf person could not access information on a website because the sites aren’t compatible with assistive technology such as software that reads text aloud. The lawsuits are based on an interpretation of the ADA, which requires that the goods and services of public accommodations be accessible to disabled people.