Key takeaways
- 60 website accessibility lawsuits were filed in November.
- Retailing, Apparel, Food, Beverage & Tobacco were targeted most.
- 10 Plaintiffs filed 72% of the month's website accessibility lawsuits.
- Equal Access Law Group, PLLC filed the most complaints in November with 33 lawsuits.
- Most lawsuits (78%) were filed in Illinois with Wisconsin coming in second at 12%
- We detected that 40% of litigated websites in November are using a Third-party accessibility Overlay tool.
- 67% of the lawsuits used WCAG 2.2 as the evaluation standard.
Retailing, Apparel, Food, Beverage & Tobacco were targeted most in November with a combined total of 54 lawsuits (thats 90.00%).
Equal Access Law Group, PLLC filed the most complaints in November with 33 lawsuits. Stein Saks, PLLC came in second place with 10 filings.
Most lawsuits (78%) were filed in Illinois with Wisconsin coming in second at 12%Third-Party Overlays
We detected that 40% of litigated websites in November are using a Third-party accessibility Overlay tool.
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
Dustin Youngren is the most litigious website accessibility plaintiff, filing 6 lawsuits in November.