The California Consumer Privacy Act gives consumers more control over their personal information.

So, specifically, in California, consumers have the right to know the personal information that is being collected from them, the right to delete that personal information, they r- the right to opt out of the sale of their personal information, and the right to non-discrimination for exercising their rights.

And what’s a common theme is that this must be this must all be accessible, right.

So knowing what personal information is gathered and opting out of the sale of that personal information and submitting a request to delete that personal information. that must all be accessible to consumers including consumers with disabilities.

So with the CPA, we see a lot of accessibility providers using this as a means to say, okay, your entire website needs to be accessible.

Just looking at this law, that’s not what this law is getting at.

This law is saying that with regards to privacy and the consumers ability to control what information is collected about them and how it’s used.

Those means- the means to control that information and to opt out of the sale of that information- personal information, etc. must be accessible.

And so and again this is common in the language.

It commonly it’s- it says in a form that is reasonably accessible to consumers.

It also says a business if a business maintains a website it must make the website available to consumers to submit requests.

A business is required to comply in a form that is reasonably accessible to consumers.

There must be a clear and conspicuous leak on the business’s home page titled, do not sell my personal information.

And there must be a description of consumer rights with a separate link.

And I’m just reading over and over against some specific scenarios here or specific selections of the law.

And then there’s also a section that says establishing rules procedures and exceptions necessary to ensure that the notices and information that businesses are required to provide pursuant to this title are provided in a manner that may be easily understood by the average consumer, are accessible to consumers with disabilities…”

That’s the key selection.

And then we see in in a supplemental document and Final Regulation Text, they- the CPA actually references the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

And so it says, “The right of- the notice of right to opt out shall be designed and presented in a way that is easy to read and understandable to consumers. The notice shall D) be reasonably accessible to consumers with disabilities for notices provided online the business shall follow generally recognized industry standards such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 and in other contexts the business shall provide information on how a consumer with a disability may access the notice in a in an alternative format.”

Okay, so there it is.

It’s this notice, it’s the ability to opt out that must be accessible doesn’t necessarily that doesn’t necessarily mean your entire website should has to be accessible.

Although, of course, I recommend it but I want to make sure that you’re aware of exactly what this law states and what it does not.

It doesn’t- nowhere in here do I see anything about your entire website needing to conform to WCAG 2.1.

Here it says the right to opt out and then otherwise it’s the right to access the information about the privacy, about how to opt out, about what information is being collected.

So some ways that you would make your website accessible for these things or some ways that I can see accessibility is incorporated here is 1) you need to make sure that there is keyboard access.

So that’s very, very important because otherwise yes, your page itself on the CCPA – what is it, the do not sell, what does it say, there’s a there’s a specific title that they’re asking that they – do not sell my personal information.

Okay, so if you have a notice that says do not sell my personal information, you need to make sure that that notice you’re able to navigate to it by keyboard only.

So that’s very important and it goes beyond the page of the information itself.

You need to make sure that notice page is accessible.

That shouldn’t be too difficult because it’s mostly going to be text, but if you have a video, of course, that it needs to have closed captions.

Headings on that page would be extremely helpful – especially depending on how long it is if you make it very simple and headings aren’t as important.

Color contrast is important.

So don’t hide this link using color contrast because then it becomes harder to notice.

We see this a lot with unsubscribe on emails.

The unsubscribe link is hidden with very- with a very low color contrast ratio to where it’s harder to see.

So these are some ways that you would make this page and your notice accessible.

Of course, it can go beyond this, but these are some of the first things that come to my mind when I think of accessibility for this ability to opt out, for this ability to read on information that is collected, etc.

So I think it’s important to know that the CCPA does not say your entire website needs to be accessible.

Of course other laws are implicated but specific to the CPA doesn’t say that. It just says that these things need to be accessible.

So if you do find yourself in litigation that concerns the CCPA and accessibility knowing this is very, very important because just because something else on your website is inaccessible it doesn’t mean that you’ve necessarily violated the CCPA.

[End Transcript]

Read about the California Unruh Act as it relates to website accessibility.

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With complaints filed in New York what you will commonly see is a cause of action for 1) A violation of the New York State Human Rights Law and then 2) a violation of the New York City Human Rights Law and so as the names indicate the difference is negligible.

The difference is one applies statewide and one applies to New York City.

And so whether the language may not be exactly the same, the sentiment is very similar.

And that is that the both laws protect against discrimination of protected classes and so protected classes include age disability of course race, sexual orientation, etc.

But what’s important and relevant to this channel is that disability is protected in places of public accommodation.

And so again the same theme is we’re seeing the language from the American Disabilities Act incorporated into these laws.

And so whereas the Americans Disabilities Act is specific to disability these laws are specific to discrimination of any number of protected classes but we see disability comes up.

And then plaintiffs law firms have taken that next step and they have applied these local laws to websites.

And so what’s happening is places of public accommodation need to make their accommodations, facilities, etc. so that they can so that they can be accessed by people with disabilities.

And so the New York State Human Rights Law and I’ll link to- I’m looking at a page right now that that has a broad overview of that they basically a summary of the law- but it lists off restaurants, stores, hospitals, museums, and theaters and it’s saying that these places need to have reasonable accommodations.

Well what happens is plaintiffs’ law firms have extended this and they’re saying well websites also need to make sure that they are accessible and if they’re not they’re in violation of not only you know sometimes they’ll- they’ll say it’s the New York State Human Rights Law not only that law but also the city law as well.

And this same- he same or very similar logic is used with these laws as it is the American Disabilities Act so when it comes to website accessibility we not only see the ADA being cited as a cause of action, but these the state and now city laws are being cited because 1) it makes the argument that makes the complaint stronger but 2) it provides for damages whereas the Americans with Disabilities act does not provide damages for the plaintiff.

It’s an- it’s provides for injunctions- injunctive relief now we have these local laws and they do provide for damages so it’s more lucrative to file complaints with causes of actions under these laws and so what you’ll see is the plaintiffs law firms will have causes of actions under the American Disabilities Act as well as the New York State and City Human Rights Law.

So I will link to the sources below where you can read the law but that’s what’s happening with the New York City Human Rights Law.

The post New York City Human Rights Law (NYCHRL) and Website Accessibility appeared first on The ADA Book.

In New York you will commonly see a violation of the New York State Human Rights Law as a cause of action for a complaint centered around website inaccessibility.

So what is the New York State Human Rights Law?

Well this is just this is just a law that prevents or prohibits discrimination based on any number of classes of demographics.

So, for example, race, gender, and, of course, disability among others.

So this law is like -think of it as a broad- it’s not an extension of the Americans with Disabilities Act, but it’s very similar to the Americans with Disabilities act and it’s saying that you can’t discriminate based on based on any number of demographics whereas the ADA is solely focused on disability.

And so in this law it’s very similar to the ADA in that it uses the phrase “accommodations” so or it says- it actually does say place of public accommodation.

And so it’s unlawful and unlawful discriminatory practice for any person being the owner, etc. of any place of public accommodation because of the disability of any person to deny them refuse them the accommodations advantages facilities or privilege thereof.

That language is strikingly similar to that in the of the ADA but what is important is that this is another civil rights law.

This one specific to the state of New York rather than a federal law.

And with- because of this law plaintiffs lawyers now have another avenue of which to pursue damages under claims of a website being inaccessible.

So what will happen is a plaintiff’s lawyer will say that the defendant has a website, it operates in the state of New York, it’s it falls under the categories of a place of public accommodations, and it’s within the law within the New York State the right to law.

And so therefore the website is a service privileges privilege or advantage of whatever the defendant is offering.

And because the website is inaccessible, the defendant is refusing to update or update and remove barriers to access.

And so someone has been discriminated against who has a disability and therefore they fall under this protected class and there’s a violation of the law.

And so the plaintiff is entitled to damages, attorney’s fees, etc.

So that’s what’s going on with the New York State Human Rights Law it’s not it’s not complicated at all it’s more just a state version of the ADA that’s generalized amongst many different protected classes.

[End Transcript]

Read about the New York City Human Rights Law.

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