Forbes: New York Led The Way In U.S. Web Accessibility Lawsuits In 2023, Report Shows

By: Gus Alexiou

New York state is second to none when it comes to geographical hotspots for web accessibility lawsuits in the United States according to the latest report from web accessibility consultancy UsableNet which monitors and publishes detailed findings on legal trends related to digital accessibility biannually.

UsableNet’s year-end report for 2023 identified that out of a total of 4,605 lawsuits, almost 75% were filed in New York at a federal or state level with California and Florida being the other two hotbeds for litigation – although lagging significantly behind their east coast counterpart. A company does not need to be located in New York to risk being sued but simply has to have customers within the said jurisdiction.

“Don’t get excited if you are outside of New York. Any company doing business in New York via a website can have a claim brought there. That goes for California, Florida, and any other state. The internet has no boundaries,” wrote UsableNet’s Chief Innovation Strategist Jason Taylor in a blog post responding to the research findings.

Amongst the factors driving the primacy of New York are favorable web accessibility laws which, unlike other states such as California, do not require websites to be coupled to a physical location within the state to be viewed as a place of public accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act. In New York, there is also a high concentration of active plaintiffs and specialist web accessibility plaintiff law firms as well as a judiciary with a strong track record of being sympathetic to litigants who allege encountering digital access barriers.

Interestingly, the top 10 plaintiff law firms spearheaded by the likes of Stein & Nieporent LLP and Dentons US account for over 80% of all federally filed cases and 38 plaintiff law firms along with just 51 plaintiffs make up all filed web ADA claims in total. That’s in contrast to 654 defense attorneys working across hundreds of different firms on the opposite side – with the top ten defense firms taking on just 20% of federal cases. This indicates that the plaintiff side is generally a far more streamlined expert operation which targets very precisely in contrast to the defense side, which by its very nature, is likely to be more reactive and on the back foot from the outset.

Another noteworthy finding, although hardly surprising, is that e-commerce websites dominate the ADA website industry breakdown accounting for 82% of all lawsuits with other major sectors such as food services, education and healthcare comprising the remaining 18% between them. E-commerce websites are renowned for featuring rapidly changing dynamic content as well as requiring significant user interaction and therefore the risk of accessibility fails, particularly amongst blind users deploying screen readers, is extremely high.

Despite the relative maturity of mobile smart technology, in 2023, the vast majority of claims still relate to desktop websites with a staggering 97% of lawsuits targeting these as opposed to mobile websites, apps and videos.

However, if website owners believe that the risk of accessibility lawsuits can be sidestepped solely by deploying a one-and-done automated web accessibility overlay widget from the likes of accessiBE, AudioEye or UserWay – then think again. Businesses using accessibility widgets received 933 lawsuits last year, a 62%increase from 2022. Owners of digital products deploying automated accessibility tools must also continue to test websites manually alongside users with disabilities if possible and set aside a budget for accessibility enhancements and education.

In 2024, it can reasonably be expected that New York will be the location where many more web-inaccessibility chickens come home to roost. However, there remains sufficient time to mitigate this risk considerably by ensuring that a renewed focus on web accessibility, even if it begins as a New Year’s resolution, is maintained as a priority throughout the next 12 months.