May 2022 Digital Accessibility Lawsuit Information

• 223 website accessibility lawsuits were filed in May.
• Consumer Staples, Retailing and Consumer Discretionary were targeted most.
• 8 Plaintiffs filed 42% of the month's website accessibility lawsuits.
• MIZRAHI KROUB LLP filed the most complaints in May with 69 lawsuits in New York.
• Most lawsuits (71%) were filed in New York with California coming in second at 23%
• None of the litigated Websites in May seemed to employ Third-party Overlay tools.

 

Consumer Staples, Retailing and Consumer Discretionary were targeted most in May with a combined total of 126 lawsuits (thats 56.51%)

Most lawsuits (71%) were filed in New York with California coming in second at 23%

Third-Party Overlays

None of the litigated Websites in May seemed to employ Third-party Overlay tools.

Typically overlays, or widgets, apply a third-party's source code to the existing webpage in an effort to change the user experience by overriding or altering elements of the page. Overlays are often used in-place of manual identification and resolution of accessibility barriers. Because such overlays try to hide underlying accessibility issues, their effectiveness is debated and their use seems to promote the idea that website operators need not concern themselves with the accessibility of their webpages. There has been an increase in the number of lawsuits against websites that use third-party overlays.

Plaintiffs Who Filed the Most Lawsuits

ANA CHALAS is the most litigious website accessibility plaintiff, filing 20 lawsuits in May.

MIZRAHI KROUB LLP filed the most complaints in May with 69 lawsuits in New York. PACIFIC TRIAL ATTORNEYS, APC came in second place with 38 filings in California.