Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities in any place of public accommodation. The definition of public accommodation has expanded to include websites which is why digital accessibility has become increasingly important to restaurants.
Digital accessibility is the ability of a website, mobile application or electronic document to be easily navigated and understood by a wide range of users, including those users who have visual, auditory, motor or cognitive disabilities. Due to the absence of federal guidelines from the Department of Justice, lawsuits have pointed to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) v 2.1 AA as standard for digital accessibility.
Starting in 2017, there has been a sharp increase in ADA lawsuits targeting small businesses for their websites not being accessible to all. Restaurants have been hit particularly hard by these lawsuits. In 2018, over 2,500 ADA lawsuits were filed for alleged website violations. These cases are typically settled out of court for an average of $16,000 each plus attorney’s fees.
BentoBox has committed significant resources to helping our customers’ websites become more accessible. We have undergone two full accessibility audits through external firms and we have created this guide on how to keep your BentoBox website content accessible.
You can always refer to section 9.3 of the subscription agreement to review BentoBox’s efforts towards digital accessibility.
Want to learn more? Check out this 13-minute explainer video on ADA from our recent webinar:
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