Legislative/Regulatory Actions

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Seyfarth Synopsis: In yet another effort to reduce ADA lawsuits, California Governor Jerry Brown recently signed into law – effective immediately – legislation to encourage tenants and landlords to acknowledge and address any accessibility issues during lease negotiations.

On September 16, 2016, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law Assembly Bill 2093 – the second new disability access reform law…
Continue Reading New CA Law Requires Disclosing Known ADA Violations During Lease Negotiations

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: New Affordable Care Act and Medicaid Regulations will require covered entities providing health care programs and services have accessible electronic information technology, including accessible websites.

While we continue to wait for new regulations for the websites of state and local governments, federal agencies and public accommodations, two new regulations from the Department of Health and Human Services…
Continue Reading New Healthcare Regulations Impose Accessible Technology Requirements

Seyfarth Synopsis: In yet another effort to limit predatory ADA lawsuits, California Governor Jerry Brown recently signed into law – effective immediately – legislation that will provide small business owners with some potential relief.

Another year, another attempt in California to reform disability access laws – which presently offer plaintiffs a $4,000 per violation bounty for suing businesses.  But this…
Continue Reading Latest California ADA Lawsuit Reform Attempt: “Watered Down Solution”

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

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

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

Marcapitolianne Wilson of Chain Store Age Media reported today that the “ADA Education and Reform Act of 2015”, H.R. 3765, introduced yesterday, October 20, 2015, by Representatives Ted Poe (R-TX), Doug Collins (R-GA) and David Jolly (R-FL), seeks to address ADA “drive-by” lawsuits. This is a topic about which we’ve reported about numerous times, such as here.
Continue Reading ADA Reform Legislation Proponents Cite Seyfarth’s Lawsuit Data

Review of Disabled Persons Act Applicability to Websites Withdrawn; California Agency Issues Guidance on CASp Benefits; and Novel New Serial Lawsuits Filed Against Car Dealerships

By Kristina Launey

As we’ve discussed previously, California is a hotbed for disability access suits – both based upon alleged physical accessibility violations of California law and the ADA and based upon alleged inaccessible websites. …
Continue Reading California Accessibility Update