By John W. Egan and Minh N. Vu
Seyfarth Synopsis: A Committee in the New York State Senate aims to develop a legal standard for the accessibility of business websites under New York law, in response to the exponential increase in website accessibility litigation in the state. Whether state legislation could stem this tide, or instead make matters worse for
Continue Reading New York Lawmakers Plan To Address Website Accessibility
By Kristina M. Launey & Minh N. Vu
Seyfarth Synopsis: Four years and two motions to dismiss based on the pleadings later, the National Association of the Deaf’s (NAD) online video captioning lawsuit against Harvard is moving forward to fact discovery. On March 28, Federal Magistrate Judge Robertson in the District of Massachusetts denied the university’s motion for judgment on
Continue Reading Four-Year Court Battle Between Deaf Advocates and Harvard Over Closed Captioning of Videos Proceeds to Discovery With Some Limitations
By: Kevin A. Fritz and Minh Vu
Seyfarth Synopsis: The Court of Appeals for the First Circuit says that an agreement to arbitrate presented visually to blind plaintiffs on a POS device and never read to them is not binding.
Season’s greetings! As the holiday season ramps up, retailers’ point-of-sale (“POS”) devices will again go into overdrive facilitating the
Continue Reading Court of Appeals Says Blind Plaintiff is Not Bound By a Written Agreement to Arbitrate That He Could Not Read
By: Kevin Fritz
Seyfarth Synopsis: June 2, 2018 marked the second compliance deadline for movie theatres with auditoriums showing digital movies to comply with the ADA Title III Movie Captioning and Audio Description Rule.
June 2 marked the arrival of the second of four deadlines under the ADA Title III Movie Captioning and Audio Description Rule, which went
Continue Reading Second Equipment Compliance Deadline for Movie Captioning and Audio Description Rule has Arrived
By Minh N. Vu
Seyfarth Synopsis: HR 620 requires potential plaintiffs to provide businesses with notice of architectural barriers and give them an opportunity to remove them before filing suit.
Today, the House of Representatives passed the ADA Education and Reform Act (HR 620) by a vote of 225 to 192, with 12 Democrats voting for the bill. As we
Continue Reading House Passes Bill to Amend Title III of the ADA In Attempt to Curb Drive-By Lawsuits
By Kristina M. Launey, Minh N. Vu, & Susan Ryan
Seyfarth Synopsis: The number of federal ADA Title III lawsuits continue to surge in 2017, fueled largely by website accessibility claims; while legislative reform efforts continue to mitigate the physical accessibility portion of those lawsuit numbers.
The results of our 2017 ADA Title III lawsuit count are in,
Continue Reading ADA Title III Lawsuits Increase by 16% in 2017 Due Largely to Website Access Lawsuits; Physical Accessibility Legislative Reform Efforts Continue
By: Minh N. Vu
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 another example of what a difference an election can make.
In 2010, the DOJ started the rulemaking process to issue new regulations about the
Continue Reading DOJ Nixes All Pending ADA Rulemakings, Including Website Access Rules