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 by issuing a Supplemental Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (SANPRM), rather than – as all expected – actually issuing a proposed regulation for
Continue Reading DOJ Extends Comment Period for ADA Title II SANPRM, Cites Impact on Title III Rule

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 web accessibility.

As we reported, last week DOJ issued a lengthy Supplemental ANPRM (SANPRM) for state and local government websites, which some commentators have
Continue Reading Attention Public Accommodations: DOJ’s Recent Rulemaking Action for State and Local Government Websites Reveals its Current Thinking on Web Accessibility

This morning, on Global Accessibility Awareness Day, DOJ participated by issuing its Spring 2016 unified agenda, including upcoming regulatory actions on web accessibility and movie captioning.

Click on the links to the right in the bullets below for the lowdown on each rule, but here are a few highlights:

AA65: State and Local Government web accessibility regulations.  No need
Continue Reading On Global Accessibility Awareness Day, DOJ Releases Agenda Indicating Progress in 2016; Omits Title III

Time concept: Hourglass on computer keyboard backgroundSeyfarth 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 it is stepping backward rather than moving forward in that process, withdrawing its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Title II regulations applicable to public entities,
Continue Reading Web Reg “Do Over?”: DOJ Withdraws Title II Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Issues Supplemental Advanced Notice Seeking Further Comments

Seyfarth Synopsis: NYC recently passed a law requiring that its government agency websites meet accessibility standards.  Other state and local governments may follow NYC’s lead and enact accessibility standards for government agencies, contractors and even public accommodations in the absence of regulations from DOJ.

On March 14, New York City became the first major municipality in the United States to
Continue Reading New York City Enacts Accessibility Standards for Government Websites

By Kevin Fritz

Gavel on sounding blockWhen people think of the term “public accommodation,” images of restaurants, storefronts, and hotels come to mind.  The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) recent Consent Decree with a moving company provides an important reminder that service providers can also be considered a “place of public accommodation” covered by Title III of the ADA.  Title III of the ADA
Continue Reading DOJ Consent Decree Is A Reminder That Service Providers Are Public Accommodations

As we reported in July of 2014, the DOJ is working on final regulations that would require movie theatres with digital screens to show movies with closed captioning and audio description.

At a cost to the industry that DOJ estimated will be between $138.1 and $275.7 million, the proposed regulations would require that all movie theatres with digital screens
Continue Reading Regulatory Update: Movie Captioning and Audio Description Regulations in the Final Stages of Review

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 Magistrate Judge Robertson in the District of Massachusetts recently denied motions by Harvard and MIT to dismiss or stay website accessibility class action lawsuits, and recommended that
Continue Reading Lack Of Website Accessibility Regulations Is No Bar To Suit, Another Judge Affirms

(Photo) WebsiteBy Minh N. Vu

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 accessibility of public accommodations websites. At that time, it made a number of statements that reasonably led public accommodations to conclude that their websites did not necessarily have to be accessible as long as the public accommodation offered an equivalent alternative way to access the goods and services that were provided on the website. The DOJ’s statements also led public accommodations to believe that once DOJ issues a final regulation, they would have time to make their websites comply with the technical accessibility standard DOJ adopts in that regulation.

DOJ has now shifted positions, presenting its revised viewpoint in Statements of Interest it filed in two lawsuits originally brought by the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) against two universities about the alleged inaccessibility of videos on their websites. See here and here.

What DOJ said in 2010.

In the 2010 ANPRM, DOJ stated that “covered entities with inaccessible websites may comply with the ADA’s requirement for access by providing an accessible alternative, such as a staffed telephone line, for individuals to access the information, goods, and services of their website. In order for an entity to meet its legal obligation under the ADA, an entity’s alternative must provide an equal degree of access in terms of hours of operations and range of information, options, and services available. For example, a department store that has an inaccessible website that allows customers to access their credit accounts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in order to review their statements and make payments would need to provide access to the same information and provide the same payment options in its accessible alternative.”

DOJ also asked the public to comment on the following questions: (1) “Are the proposed effective dates for the regulations reasonable or should the Department adopt shorter or longer periods for compliance?” (2) “Should the Department adopt a safe harbor for such [web] content so long as it is not updated or modified?” (3) “Should the Department´s regulation initially apply to entities of a certain size (e.g., entities with 15 or more employees or earning a certain amount of revenue) or certain categories of entities (e.g., retail websites)?” Particularly relevant to the NAD lawsuits, DOJ specifically asked the public to comment on whether requiring videos on websites to have captioning would reduce the number of videos that public accommodations would make available, to the detriment of the public. (“[W]ould the costs of a requirement to provide captioning to videos cause covered entities to provide fewer videos on their websites?”).

What the DOJ is saying now.
Continue Reading DOJ Shifts Position on Web Access: Stating In Court Filings That Public Accommodations Have a "Pre-Existing" Obligation to Make Websites Accessible

Time concept: Hourglass on computer keyboard backgroundBy Minh N. Vu

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 a year from now. However, the proposed regulations for state and local government websites, originally slated for December 2014, should be out
Continue Reading Website Regulations Update: Public Accommodations Proposed Regs Further Delayed BUT State and Local Proposed Rules Due Out. . . Now?