Equal Access Law Group, PLLC filed the most complaints in October with 34 lawsuits. Gottlieb & Associates PLLC came in second place with 21 filings.
Key takeaways
- 95 website accessibility lawsuits were filed in October.
- Retailing, Beauty, Consumer Services were targeted most.
- 10 Plaintiffs filed 55% of the month's website accessibility lawsuits.
- Equal Access Law Group, PLLC filed the most complaints in October with 34 lawsuits.
- Most lawsuits (47%) were filed in New York with Illinois coming in second at 43%
- We detected that 42% of litigated websites in October are using a Third-party accessibility Overlay tool.
- 48% of the lawsuits used WCAG 2.1 as the evaluation standard.
Third-Party Overlays
We detected that 42% of litigated websites in October 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
Judith Adela Fernandez Martinez is the most litigious website accessibility plaintiff, filing 8 lawsuits in October.