Online businesses under legal pressure to accommodate the disabled

When it comes to the formation of new business, much of the emphasis is placed on innovations to help draw in customers and drive sales. What's often overlooked, though, is making sure companies are accommodating to the disabled.

It's common knowledge that stores and restaurants must configure their facilities so that handicapped patrons have equal access to any and all amenities. However, what has become increasingly apparent is that all the efforts towards allowing the disabled access to brick-and-mortar establishments should also be enacted by digital business.

According to the Wall Street Journal, many advocates for disabled Americans have taken to the courts in an effort to sue online businesses for not offering options that would allow deaf or blind individuals to use their services. Their main argument falls under the premise that the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) covers businesses on the internet as well as those it does in the real world.

Already, the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) and the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) have reached settlements with Target and Netflix after judges ruled that the companies' websites were not exempt from the ADA.

"It's what I call 'eat your spinach' litigation," said NFB lawyer Daniel F. Goldstein to the news source. "The market share you gain is more than the costs of making your site accessible."

However, many courts have stuck to the letter of the ADA law, stating that the act makes no such case for digital business. That could soon change, though, as the U.S. Department of Justice has announced that it will be issuing new regulations on the matter.

"Congress never contemplated the Internet at the time, and if they had, they would have included it," he Eric Goldman, a professor at Santa Clara University School of Law, said to the WSJ.

To make sure your local business qualifies all legal requirements for disabled access, the best option is to always refer to a Phoenix small business attorney.

Categorised in: Business Law

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