A case study examination of the impact of lawsuits on website accessibility

Abstract

Purpose. To evaluate the impact of lawsuits on the accessibility of company websites.Method. Convenience samples of websites for America Online (AOL), Southwest Airlines, Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA), Priceline.com, and Claire's were evaluated for years surrounding their respective lawsuits. The results of each website were compared to a random control group of websites and to a reference website (of a similarly sized company that has not been sued and is in the same industry). Where possible, two archived instances of each website were collected per year. Accessibility was measured using the Web Accessibility Barrier (WAB) metric to evaluate the homepage and pages at level 1. Analysis of variance was computed on the common periods between each pairing of sued and reference websites.Results. The case studies demonstrate mixed evidence that lawsuits work. In the cases of MARTA, Southwest and Priceline, there is supporting evidence that lawsuits have been successful. In the cases of AOL and Claire's, the evidence is weaker.Conclusion. This case study examination shows mixed evidence that lawsuits work to force companies to modify their websites to be more accessible to people with disabilities: three cases show evidence for the success and two show weaker supporting evidence.