Responding to the surge of website accessibility lawsuits filed under Title III of the ADA, 103 members of Congress from both parties sent a letter to Attorney General Sessions urging action to stem the tide of website...more
6/22/2018
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Deregulation ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Due Process ,
Public Accommodation ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Title III ,
Trump Administration ,
Website Accessibility ,
Website Owner Liability ,
Websites
Seyfarth Synopsis: 2017 saw an unprecedented number of website accessibility lawsuits filed in federal and state courts, and few courts willing to grant early motions to dismiss....more
1/3/2018
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Grocery Stores ,
Public Accommodation ,
Rewards Programs ,
Title III ,
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) ,
Website Accessibility ,
Website Owner Liability ,
Websites ,
Winn-Dixie Stores
Seyfarth Synopsis: The Justice Department withdraws pending rulemakings for accessible websites, furniture and non-fixed equipment.The current Department of Justice’s (DOJ) regulatory approach to Title III of the ADA is yet...more
12/22/2017
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Deregulation ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Public Accommodation ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Title III ,
Trump Administration ,
Website Accessibility ,
Website Owner Liability ,
Websites
Seyfarth Synopsis: The Supreme Court declines to review a Fifth Circuit decision stating that a public accommodation covered by Title III of the ADA has to be a physical place and vending machines are not sales...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: In amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Justice Department agreed with the Fifth Circuit and defendant Coca-Cola that a vending machine is not a place of public accommodation and that public...more
7/27/2017
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Coca Cola ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Disability ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Discrimination ,
Public Accommodation ,
Public Use ,
Title III ,
Vending Machines
Seyfarth Synopsis: Trump Administration’s first Unified Agenda reveals DOJ has placed web accessibility, medical equipment, and furniture rulemakings under Title II and III of the ADA on Inactive List....more
7/21/2017
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Medical Devices ,
Public Accommodation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Title II ,
Title III ,
Trump Administration ,
Website Accessibility ,
Websites
Two recent decisions by federal judges to dismiss website accessibility lawsuits may cause more public accommodations to fight instead of settle these suits, but businesses must continue to weigh many factors before making...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Fewer online videos from UC Berkeley will available to the public as a result of a DOJ demand that the videos have closed captioning....more
3/14/2017
/ Accessibility Rules ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Closed Captioning ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Digital Media ,
Educational Institutions ,
iTunes ,
Online Videos ,
Public Access Laws ,
Title II ,
University of California ,
YouTube
Seyfarth Synopsis: An executive order from President Trump will likely halt the Justice Department’s public accommodations website rulemaking.
President Obama’s Department of Justice (DOJ) had stated that proposed...more
Seyfarth synopsis: The federal government has adopted the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 Levels A and AA as its accessibility standard for federal agency websites, making it very likely that the Department of...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: DOJ announces that proposed rules for state and local government websites will issue July 2017.
The DOJ announced last week in the federal government’s Unified Agenda that it will be issuing a...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Our thoughts on the impact of the election on the ADA Title III landscape.
We now know that January 20, 2017 will bring a definitive regime change. How will this change impact Title III of the ADA,...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: The number of federal lawsuits alleging inaccessible websites continues to increase, along with the number of law firms filing them. Businesses need advice now on how to manage risk in this chaotic...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: DOJ announced today an extension to October 7, 2016 for the public to submit comments on the SANPRM for state and local government websites.
In May of this year the Department of Justice surprised us...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: If you would rather not read the 30-page small print Federal Register notice, this summary will provide you with what you need to know about the Justice Department’s most recent official pronouncement on...more
5/23/2016
/ Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Mobile Apps ,
Public Accommodation ,
Social Media ,
Title II ,
Title III ,
Undue Burden ,
Website Accessibility
Seyfarth Synopsis: Public entities and private businesses have been waiting for years – since 2010 – for the Department of Justice to issue regulations setting a standard for website accessibility. The DOJ has announced that...more
Website accessibility is an evolving and complicated topic, about which we’ve written many times. Thanks to delayed regulations and the Department of Justice’s changing positions on the issue, businesses have been caught off...more
There is more bad news for businesses that thought that they could wait for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to issue specific regulations before making their websites accessible to individuals with disabilities. Federal...more
In late December, nine Democratic senators (Edward J. Markey (D-Mass), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Cory A. Booker (D-N.J.), Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Benjamin L. Cardin...more
In an astonishing move, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it will not issue any regulations for public accommodations websites until fiscal year 2018—eight years after it started the rulemaking process with an...more
The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced today that it filed a lawsuit against the Gates-Chili Central School District in New York because it refused to have its teachers help a kindergarten student with epilepsy and other...more
In late July, coinciding with the 25th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) entered into a landmark settlement agreement with Carnival Corp. to improve the physical...more
What a difference five years makes. In September 2010, the Justice Department (DOJ) announced in an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) that it would issue new regulations under Title III of the ADA to address the...more
According to the Spring 2015 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions, the Department of Justice (DOJ) will issue no proposed regulations for public accommodations websites until least April 2016 — nearly...more
For today’s Global Accessibility Awareness Day, we have yet another Department Justice enforcement action to report relating to the allegedly inaccessible websites and other technologies. This time, DOJ is trying to...more