Trouble on the Menu: Website Accessibility Lawsuits Highlight Need for ADA Compliance in the Digital Space

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits places of public accommodation, like restaurants, from discriminating against individuals with disabilities. Traditionally, this has meant that companies have had to make their physical locations, and the goods and services offered therein, accessible to individuals with disabilities. The steady shift in our economy from physical brick-and-mortar locations to online web-based commerce has led courts to expand the definition of places of public accommodation to include websites. This expanded definition has, in turn, led to a large number of private lawsuits against businesses alleging violations of the ADA for failure to maintain websites that are accessible to blind and visually impaired individuals. Over the past year, more than 240 of these lawsuits have been filed, most of them class actions against companies in the retail and hospitality industries, including a number of restaurants and other delivery food chains. Given the…