Most people in our Internet-dependent society, don’t have difficulty accessing and interacting with websites in order to work, shop, learn or perform other functions. However, for the many Americans who have visual or hearing impairments or limited manual dexterity, not only is the Internet a much-preferred and occasionally necessary portal to commerce and education, the effective use of the Internet may be possible only with the use of assistive technology such as screen readers, screen magnifiers, speech recognition programs, text-to-speech synthesizers, and other devices that enable those with visual, auditory, physical, cognitive, and other impairments to access and interact with websites. What happens, however, when a website is not designed to include features that enable disabled individuals to use such assistive devices to access information or services via the web? These issues raise particular implications for companies with disabled employees/applicants and/or companies that operate some portion of their business (or offer services) via the Internet.
Although the Americans with Disabilities Act itself is more than 25 years old, its impact with respect to website accessibility has only recently begun to be widely felt. Moreover, the recent slew of website accessibility lawsuits being filed has made this topic one of the most significant legal issues facing in-house counsel today.
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