CHLA Lodging News July/August 2021

4 CALIFORNIA LODGING NEWS www.calodging.com Is Your Hotel Website ADA Compliant? Don’t Be Caught Off Guard! By Roshan Patel, Co-Founder SERIAL LITIGANTS HAVE EXHAUSTED DRIVE-BY lawsuit targeting physical compliance of The Americans with Disabilities Act Title III, and are now increasingly focused on “Click-By Lawsuit” aiming at your hotel and restaurant websites and the covenants of Section 36.302(e), which consist of ‘The Five Points’ of online accessibility for public places of accommodation. The number of ADA Title III lawsuits filed in federal court in 2018 hit a record high of 10,163—up 34 percent from 2017. Some 20 percent of these suits revolve around hotel website accessibility, which exploded nearly 200 percent from 2017. ADA Title III not only applies to your website, but also your Online Travel Agent (OTA) channels and your franchise website, which you, as the hotel owner, are responsible for. A hidden and misunderstood aspect of ADA Compliance is Web Accessibility. Online accessibility revolves around adhering to WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines), a set of recommendations and guidelines to make your website more accessible to individuals with audio, visual, or mobility impairment. WCAG 2.1 Guidelines are set forth to ensure that content on your website is perceivable, easily operable, more understandable, and robust, so they make your hotel’s website technology accessible for all. ADA Title III (The Law) The Americans with Disabilities Act is one of the United States’ more important civil rights laws, which prohibits discrimination based on a disability and guarantees equal opportunity for people with disabilities. The current ADA laws require hotels and places of public accommodation to provide “complete and equal enjoyment of goods, services, privileges, advantages, or accommodations” to people with disabilities. This clause does not just apply to your bricks-and-mortar hotel, but also applies to your cyber presence, including your hotel’s website and representations on OTA and franchise websites, where applicable. ADA Title III regulations, also dubbed ‘The 2010 Regulations,’ went into effect March 15, 2012, imposing new obligations on owners and operators of hotels, motels, and other places of lodging. Requirements Under 2010 ADA Title III entail the following: An owner, lessor, lessee, or operator (hereinafter referred to as “owner and operator”) of a place of lodging must, with respect to reservations “made by telephone, in- person, website, or through a third party”: (i) Modify its policies, practices, or procedures to ensure that individuals with disabilities can make reservations for accessible guest The Floodgates Have Opened Resulting in Hundreds of Lawsuits and Thousands of Demand Letters.