February 2021 Digital Accessibility Lawsuit Information

• 218 website accessibility lawsuits were filed in February.
• WCAG 2.0 non-compliance was cited more than WCAG 2.1.
• Consumer goods and apparel were targeted in more than one-third of cases.
• More than 60% of the lawsuits were filed in New York.

 

Consumer Goods has now seen the most website accessibility lawsuits for seven straight months. While the Apparel; Leisure Products; and Hotel, Restaurant, and Leisure industries commonly appear in the top-five, this is the first time in our database's history that Media is on the list. Media and Food Products each were subject to 14 lawsuits.

By now, the story of lawsuit filings per state is fairly predictable: there's New York at the top, California a few notches below, and then everyone else. In February, 139 cases were filed in New York, 55 were filed in California, and fewer than 25 elsewhere.

Accessibility Standards Specified

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are the most popular and respected digital accessibility standards.

Somewhat unexpectedly, WCAG 2.0 was referenced in more cases in February than WCAG 2.1. That hasn't happened in almost a year, and the second half of 2020 seemed to solidify WCAG 2.1 as the prominent standard in plaintiff complaints. Combining both standards, WCAG was cited in over 95% of plaintiff complaints.

Out of 218 lawsuits, 113 specifically cite a lack of WCAG 2.0 compliance, 95 cite a lack of WCAG 2.1 compliance, 16 cite Section 508, and four don't cite any formal standard. Some may also cite more than one.

• WCAG 2.0 was published in 2008 and was the industry standard for a full decade.
• WCAG 2.1 was published in 2018 and is now considered the industry standard. This latest version of WCAG added to but didn't remove anything from WCAG 2.0, making it backwards-compatible with its predecessor.
• Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is a key digital accessibility law, requiring federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology (EIT) accessible to employees and the public.

Plaintiffs Who Filed the Most Lawsuits

February's list of top-filing plaintiffs has no overlap from January's, although the top positions remain dominated by plaintiffs from the Tri-State area.

Christian Sanchez filed 30 cases in February against companies in various industries, but with a higher number against those in the Media and Finance industries.

Pacific Trial Attorneys out of California filed 33 cases and returns to the number-one position after a five month absence. Cohen & Mizrahi filed 30 cases and is in the number-two spot after being number-three in January. This is the first time since October 2020 that two separate firms each filed at least 30 cases in a single month.