Recently a decision from the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) against Domino’s Pizza LLC dealt a major blow to companies that refuse to follow the American’s with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements for websites. ADA website compliance has been a growing issue for the past few years. Title III of the ADA lays out specific guidelines for websites in the public space to follow and ensure that they are accessible for all potential customers. We have written extensively in our blog before about ADA compliance, you can read those posts here in the archive.
This case was the first time that SCOTUS weighed in on a Disabilities Act lawsuit. A man named Guillermo Robles had sued Domino’s Pizza because he was not able to complete an order online with his screen reader software for visual impairment. Eventually his lawsuit was heard by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals who ruled that Domino’s did have to fix their website and app to make sure people who use a screen reader can order online as well. Domino’s appealed to SCOTUS and they denied hearing the case, enforcing the 9th Circuit opinion.
The results of this case will have a wide impact in the digital marketing and website design world. This should’t have come as much of a surprise for folks that have been paying attention, and if anyone thought they would be able to get away from having to remain ADA compliant they were incorrect. Besides the risk of a suit, as we’ve discussed before, remaining ADA compliant is a must anyway in order to remain relevant in search engine results. Many of the things the ADA requires or even recommends are fairly standard SEO best practices as well.
What else will come on the horizon for the ADA and the digital world is unknown. But Domino’s Pizza LLC vs Robles has done a pretty good job solidifying what everyone’s best course of action is for the near future.
Contact Prestige Marketing Advisors for an audit of your site to find out if you need help becoming ADA Compliant.