Why a law about buildings keeps reaching websites

What the law actually says

Title III bars discrimination against disabled people in places of public accommodation. It lists things like restaurants, hotels, shops, offices and schools.

It was written before the web was a place of trade. It does not mention websites at all.

Everything below is about how that text has been applied to something its authors were not describing.

The list of categories in the statute is long and specific, and it describes physical places: restaurants, theatres, shops, offices, schools. That specificity is exactly why the argument about websites exists.

Where the disagreement sits

Some courts have held that a website is covered when it is tied closely to a physical place, such as a restaurant's ordering page.

Others have read it more widely. Others again have held that a business with no premises falls outside Title III.

So the answer has genuinely differed by where a case was brought. That is unusual, and it is why any blunt yes or no should be treated with care.

What happens in practice

Whatever the argument, demand letters about website access are sent in volume. Many are settled without a court ever seeing them.

They usually quote an automated scan of a well known page. For a small business the cost is the disruption and the reply, not a judgment.

This is why the practical advice and the legal picture point the same way, even while the legal picture stays unsettled.

The volume matters more than the legal theory for most small businesses. The cost of a demand letter is the disruption and the reply, and that cost lands whatever a court would eventually have decided.

No formal standard, but an expected one

There is no rule under Title III that names a technical standard for private business sites, the way there is for federal agencies.

In practice the published web guidelines at the middle level are what people cite, what settlements adopt, and what everyone means.

So the missing rule has not produced a missing standard. It has produced one by habit.

The claim that makes it worse

Some businesses respond by stating that their site meets the standard in full, or that it is certified. That is the reply most likely to hurt them.

There is no certification. And a claim to meet the standard in full is a written statement you may be asked to back up, page by page.

The safer posture is to describe what you do. What you check, how often, what is still open, and how somebody tells you about a barrier.

There is no certification scheme, so a badge claiming one is describing something that does not exist, which is covered in overlays, honestly.

What a business can sensibly do

Fix the structural things. They are the substance of nearly every complaint: labels, contrast, keyboard use, described images, heading order.

Publish an honest accessibility statement with a real way to report a problem. Then answer it when somebody writes.

Every page written by Website Builder Studio passes a check that runs before anything publishes, validated against Google Search Essentials and modern web standards. That covers the automated half as pages are added.

Doing the structural work also happens to be the cheapest option available. Labels, contrast and keyboard operation are the substance of nearly every complaint and the least expensive things on any list.

• Fix labels, contrast, keyboard operation, image descriptions and heading order
• Publish an honest accessibility statement with a working reporting route
• Answer a report when somebody sends one, promptly
• Keep a dated record of what you checked and what you fixed
• Re-check after every redesign, which is when faults return
• Ask a lawyer about your own position rather than reading one online

What we will not tell you

Whether the law reaches your business. That turns on facts about you and on where you are. It is a question for a lawyer.

We also will not tell you that a product removes legal risk. Nothing here is legal advice, and no check, badge or widget settles a legal question.

What we will say is what our checks cover and what they miss, in plain words, so you can see where the line falls.