Lawsuits targeting business websites over ADA violations are on the rise
The boutique Avanti Hotel is known for its poolside, dog-friendly rooms. Yet its website uses the valuable opening page not to highlight the Palm Springs, Calif., inn's amenities, but to explain, in stark black letters on a plain white background, that the Avanti violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Like thousands of other businesses in the United States, the 10-room hotel has been sued because it hasn't fully complied with the 1990 law that requires public places - hotels, restaurants and shops - to be accessible to people with disabilities.
But Avanti isn't being accused of failing to build a wheelchair ramp or install handrails - common charges in the scores of ADA lawsuits in years past. Instead, the lawsuit contends that the hotel's website can't be used by people who have problems seeing or hearing.
Avanti Hotel and others
