October 2022 Digital Accessibility Lawsuit Information

• 171 website accessibility lawsuits were filed in October.
• Consumer Staples, Consumer Discretionary and Food & Staples Retailing were targeted most.
• 6 Plaintiffs filed 42% of the month's website accessibility lawsuits.
• MARS KHAIMOV LAW, PLLC filed the most complaints in October with 32 lawsuits in New York.
• Most lawsuits (79%) were filed in New York with California coming in second at 16%
• None of the litigated Websites in October seemed to employ Third-party Overlay tools.

 

Consumer Staples, Consumer Discretionary and Food & Staples Retailing were targeted most in October with a combined total of 108 lawsuits (thats 63.15%)

Most lawsuits (79%) were filed in New York with California coming in second at 16%

Third-Party Overlays

None of the litigated Websites in October 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

RAFIA LAWAL is the most litigious website accessibility plaintiff, filing 18 lawsuits in October.

MARS KHAIMOV LAW, PLLC filed the most complaints in October with 32 lawsuits in New York. STEIN SAKS, PLLC came in second place with 27 filings in New York.