The New York Federal District Court has recently made a potentially important decision regarding the relationship between employer websites and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The interaction between the ADA and company websites has always been complicated, creating many lawsuits revolving around the inaccessibility of websites to those with disabilities. Winegard v. Newsday involved a suit brought against Newsday, a company with no physical location open to the public. The court ruled that in this specific situation (websites linked to a business without a physical location open to the public), the ADA does not apply to the business website. The case is now being appealed to the Second Circuit.

Should this decision stand, it would require a nexus between a company’s website and its physical, public location in order to be subject to the disability accommodation requirements of the ADA. This could be a strong shield for those business that are not open to the public from ADA suits. With the appeal, the court will hopefully give additional guidance on what businesses will be exempt from ADA website requirements.