Since Title III of the American with Disabilities Act was enacted, the landscape of where people with disabilities may experience discrimination has grown even larger. With the digital world expanding rapidly, people with visual disabilities face unique dangers presented by inaccessible websites and the lack of federal web accessibility standards. While courts across the nation scatter to find balance in protecting the rights of people with disabilities without overburdening businesses, Congress’s failure to legislate web accessibility standards, and the Department of Justice’s ineffective enforcement mechanisms propel misunderstanding and confusion among those affected by this legal gap. Specifically, the growing presence of online contracts, with boilerplate provisions, presented to blind and visually impaired consumers browsing websites of such businesses jeopardizes the opportunity for these consumers to know what rights they may be waiving. This Note criticizes Congress’s inaction to legislate web accessibility standards that require private, online businesses to conform with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, particularly widely used Level A and AA standards, as evidenced in the European Union’s 2019 Directive. This Note continues to urge state legislatures to enact statutes that encompass the need for compliance with such standards to help create a safer digital world for individuals with visual disabilities who want to purchase or use online goods and services that are conditioned on assenting to an online contract first.
