Residents of California may be interested in reading this article regarding an email sent to bicycle shops threatening them with non-ADA compliance regarding their websites. A law firm, known as the Cannon Law Firm out of Beverly Hills, California, has sent a letter to what may be hundreds of bicycle retailers. Representing a blind woman, the letters claim damages. Such damages might be $4,000 for each violation, plus attorney’s fees and costs. The Beverly Hills law firm claim they are open to a settlement with a timely response by the shop.
There is no set standard for compliance
The fact that there is no one standard of compliance often opens up the opportunity for such lawsuits. Sometimes, the shops settle, as in a recent suit against two bike shops in New York State. Depending on the fact, many of these cases turn out to be frivolous, and many will require a strong response, but no settlement.
Many of the bike shops’ websites in California are hosted by SmartEtailing who has been doing a fantastic job in this regard. SmartEtailng has worked closely with the Karlin Law Firm and knows how to quickly make needed modifications (or if not needed, preventative modifications), plus special add on preventative measures which are not normally known to web developers, but which have been developed by the Karlin Law Firm. The CEO of SmartEtailing.com said that its sites are built with the goal of compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1).
In addition to a good web development team and a good ADA website attorney, the owners of websites need to know that basics of what these types of plaintiffs are looking for, since the website owner will often make changes, will often put up new content by themselves, and the owners will need to know how best to make these additions and modifications. It’s really a team approach. An ADA website attorney who follows the developments in the law, the web developer who will often make additions recommended by the ADA website attorney, and the owner of the website, who will decide if the the ADA website’s suggestions will work for his or her Bike Shop, and who will follow the recommendations when putting up new content.
Your best team – Karlin Law – Top Web Developer – and You
ADA website lawsuits are common these days. While most of these lawsuit and website claims against bike shops may well be unfounded, it’s often a good idea to add some things that are not necessarily required for a website to be compliant. The Karlin Law Firm calls this adding ADA website fortifications to minimize the risk of such claims, even if the website is considered to be ADA “compliant.” As in most business activities having a great team is the best way to avoid these types of claims. The Karlin Law Firm has worked with hundreds of web developers, and the web developers at SmartEtailing.com are among the top, if not the top, web developers for bike shops regarding ADA website compliance.