What California Law Firms Should Know About ADA and CIPA Website Compliance

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For California law firms with an online presence, two significant issues should be addressed as part of an ongoing strategy to reduce potential legal risk:

1. Website accessibility under the ADA: Ensuring that people with disabilities can effectively access, navigate, and use the firm’s website.
2. Website privacy under California’s CIPA: Evaluating how website technologies collect, use, and transmit visitor information under the California Invasion of Privacy Act.

ADA website accessibility claims may center on whether a website provides people with disabilities meaningful access to its content and functionality.

A number of recent CIPA claims focus on technologies that are routinely used for analytics, advertising, customer service, and website optimization. This may include tracking pixels, chat tools, session-replay software, and other technologies that collect or transmit information about website visitors.

As privacy litigation involving these technologies continues to develop, California law firms should review which tools are operating on their websites and understand how those tools handle visitor information.

SLS Consulting, Inc. does not provide legal advice or determine whether a website complies with the ADA, CIPA, or other applicable laws. Instead, we serve as a technical and digital marketing partner, helping clients identify, evaluate, and address website conditions their attorneys may flag during accessibility and privacy reviews.

SLS Consulting, Inc. is a full-service digital marketing agency that has been helping law firms strengthen their online presence since 1999. Founder Susan Ziegler built the company around ethical white-hat digital marketing strategies designed to help small and medium-sized firms compete effectively online.

If you have questions about how your digital tools are operating, or if you want to know how your website could be more effective, contact us at (323) 254-1510 to learn more today.

Why Website Accessibility Laws Matter

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has consistently taken the position that the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to goods and services that businesses offer online.

The DOJ currently does not prescribe one detailed technical standard for website accessibility. Instead, businesses retain flexibility in how they satisfy the ADA’s general nondiscrimination and effective-communication requirements. The DOJ identifies the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) as useful technical guidance for making web content accessible.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are internationally recognized standards developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to help make websites and digital content more accessible to people with disabilities. WCAG provides specific recommendations for improving accessibility for users with visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, language, learning, and neurological disabilities.

WCAG is organized around four core principles: web content should be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.

• Perceivable: Users must be able to recognize and access the information being presented, regardless of disability.
• Operable: Users must be able to navigate and interact with the website using different input methods, including a keyboard or assistive technology.
• Understandable: Website content and functionality should be clear, readable, consistent, and predictable so users can understand both the information and how to use the site.
• Robust: Content should work reliably with different browsers, devices, and assistive technologies, such as screen readers.

Important Website Accessibility Issues

The DOJ specifically identifies issues such as contrast, headings, keyboard navigation, and the proper identification of website elements as accessibility considerations. It also cautions that although automated checkers can be useful, they cannot conclusively determine whether a site is accessible.

Common issues include:

• Website functions that cannot be operated using only a keyboard
• Images without meaningful alternative text
• Incorrect or confusing heading structures
• Form fields without appropriate labels or instructions
• Insufficient contrast between text and its background
• Navigation that creates difficulties for screen-reader users
• Interactive components that do not clearly communicate their purpose or status

CIPA Has Created Another Layer of Website Risk

The California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) is a state law that protects the privacy of certain communications by restricting unauthorized interception, recording, or monitoring. It can apply to certain website technologies when they collect or transmit users’ communications or data without proper consent.

For a California law firm, maintaining CIPA compliance is particularly important because your website may collect information from prospective clients who are describing accidents, criminal allegations, family disputes, medical issues, or other sensitive matters.

CIPA litigation has increasingly targeted ordinary website technologies, including tracking pixels, analytics tools, session-replay software, chat widgets, cookies, beacons, and advertising tags. Plaintiffs have alleged that these technologies intercept or transmit visitors’ communications or identifying information to third parties without adequate consent.

There are important questions that your firm will want to ask in relation to recent developments regarding CIPA.

What technologies are running on the website?

The firm should know more than what appears visually on the page. The relevant inventory can include Google/Adobe analytics, advertising pixels, remarketing tags, session-replay software, call-tracking technology, chatbots/live chat, embedded videos, social-media integrations, cookies, fingerprinting or identification technology, and third-party intake/contact-form software.

CIPA cases have challenged several of these technologies. However, the mere presence of a tool does not automatically mean the website violates CIPA, and the law remains unsettled.

What information does each technology collect?

A firm should determine whether a technology receives information such as an IP address, device/browser information, URLs and pages visited, button clicks, search terms, form-field entries, chat messages, mouse movements, keystrokes, identifiers, approximate location, or information that could associate activity with a particular visitor.

For a law firm, your contact form deserves especially close attention. A visitor typing something like “I was arrested last night” or “my child suffered an injury” presents a much different privacy concern than an analytics system simply counting a pageview.

When does the technology activate?

Courts have specifically examined allegations that tracking technologies operate in real time while users browse and enter information.

You may wish to perform an audit that determines whether your tools are fired:

• immediately when the page loads;
• before the visitor sees or accepts a cookie/privacy notice;
• only after affirmative consent;
• when the visitor begins typing;
• when information is submitted;
• or after some other action.

Where does the information go?

A website’s technical configuration could potentially cause information about an interaction to be transmitted simultaneously to an entity that provides analytics, advertising, chat, CRM, call-tracking, or session-replay.

A vendor-by-vendor data-flow review can tell you what information leaves the visitor’s browser, who receives it, what the recipient can actually read, whether it retains or combines the information with other data, and what contractual restrictions govern its use.

Has the firm’s attorney reviewed these practices?

A technical audit tells the firm what the website does; counsel determines what the firm should do about it. That review could cover the firm’s privacy policy, cookie/consent mechanism, disclosures near forms and chat features, vendor agreements, configuration of tracking technologies, timing of consent, data minimization, and whether particular technologies should be disabled or reconfigured.

SLS Consulting Helps Businesses Understand Website Risk

Today, website performance involves much more than rankings. A successful website must provide a stimulating user experience, support accessibility, protect the integrity of a company’s marketing strategy, and give clients and their attorneys a clear understanding of how the technology is operating behind the scenes.

SLS Consulting, Inc. can help identify accessibility barriers, review website structure and content, inventory third-party technologies, evaluate script behavior, test consent implementations, and make technical changes based on recommendations provided by a client’s legal counsel.

We do not tell clients whether their website is legally compliant. Your attorneys make those determinations. But we can help make the website changes necessary to put that legal guidance into practice.

Call (323) 254-1510 to speak with one of our website engineers today.

Frequently Asked Questions About ADA and CIPA Website Compliance

What does California website ADA compliance involve?

California website ADA compliance involves making online goods and services accessible to people with disabilities. Technical considerations may include keyboard navigation, screen-reader compatibility, alternative text, properly structured headings, form labels, color contrast, and accessible interactive features.

Does the ADA require private businesses to follow WCAG?

The Department of Justice identifies the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) as useful technical guidance for accessibility. However, private businesses currently have flexibility in how they satisfy the ADA’s general requirements, so businesses should consult qualified legal counsel about their specific obligations.

What is CIPA website compliance?

CIPA website compliance concerns the California Invasion of Privacy Act and how it may apply to certain online communications and technologies. Because courts have not applied CIPA uniformly to every technology or factual situation, businesses should have their attorneys evaluate their websites and privacy practices rather than assuming that a particular tool is either compliant or unlawful.

Can tracking pixels, analytics tools, or chat widgets violate CIPA?

The presence of analytics software, tracking pixels, session-replay technology, or chat widgets does not automatically mean a website violates CIPA. Legal questions may depend on factors such as what information is collected, how and when it is collected, whether information is transmitted to a third party, and whether appropriate consent was obtained.

Can an accessibility score prove that a website is ADA compliant?

A strong automated accessibility score is a useful indicator of technical performance, but it is not a legal safe harbor or guarantee of ADA compliance. Automated testing should generally be combined with manual reviews, including testing of keyboard navigation, screen-reader functionality, forms, menus, and other interactive features.

How can businesses reduce the risk of ADA website lawsuits?

ADA website lawsuit prevention should include ongoing attention to accessibility rather than relying on a one-time website fix. Regular automated scans, manual testing, accessible content practices, reviews of new website features, and consultation with qualified legal counsel can help businesses identify and address potential problems.

Why should businesses conduct a website privacy compliance audit?

A website privacy compliance audit can help identify analytics tools, advertising pixels, cookies, chat software, session-replay technology, form-tracking scripts, and other third-party technologies operating on a website. Businesses can then work with legal counsel to determine whether changes are appropriate and with their developers or marketing partners to implement those recommendations.