March 2021 Digital Accessibility Lawsuit Information

• 248 website accessibility lawsuits were filed in March, the most in our database's history.
• WCAG 2.0 was cited more than WCAG 2.1 for the second straight month.
• Consumer goods, apparel, and food products industries were targeted most.
• Five plaintiffs filed 41% of the month's website accessibility lawsuits.
• Nearly 70% of all lawsuits were filed in New York.

 

Consumer Goods and Apparel industries were targeted with 40 lawsuits each in March, combining for nearly one-third of all website accessibility lawsuits. The Food Products industry saw a significant increase in lawsuits, finishing just two behind the leaders with 38.

New York registered its highest number of lawsuits in a single month with 172 cases filed in March. The Empire State continued its streak as the most popular state for website accessibility cases for the eleventh straight month.

California produced more than double the number of cases of Florida, and cases trickled out of Pennsylvania and Illinois.

Accessibility Standards Specified

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

For the second month in a row, WCAG 2.0 was the most popular, referenced in more cases than WCAG 2.1. This didn't happen at all in the later half of 2020, and now has occurred in February and March of 2021.

Out of 248 lawsuits, 141 specifically cite a lack of WCAG 2.0 compliance, 130 cite a lack of WCAG 2.1 compliance, 22 cite Section 508, and eight don't cite any. 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

Cristian Sanchez is the most litigious website accessibility plaintiff for the second straight month, filing 37 lawsuits in March after filing 30 in February. The only non-New York plaintiff in the top-five filing list was Victor Ariza out of Florida.

Cohen & Mizrahi and Pacific Trial Attorneys swap spots in March, with Cohen & Mizrahi moving to the number-one spot and Pacific Trial Attorneys moving to number two. Gottlieb and Associates appears in the top-five list again after being absent in February. Notably, four of the top-five filing law firms in March are from the Tri-State area.