Are websites considered places of public accommodation?
The Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits state and local governments and other “places of public accommodation” from discriminating against individuals with disabilities. Under the ADA, a place of public accommodation “shall take those steps that may be necessary to ensure that no individual with a disability is excluded, denied services, segregated or otherwise treated differently than other individuals because of the absence of auxiliary aids and services, unless the public accommodation can demonstrate that taking those steps would fundamentally alter the nature of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations being offered or would result in an undue burden, i.e., significant difficulty or expense.”
The ADA does not specify what is meant by a “place” of public accommodation. A case is now pending, Stern v Sony, which will determine whether an online gaming forum would constitute a a place of public accommodation. In 1996, the DOJ’s Civil Rights office stated that the provisions of the ADA should apply to Internet websites. But federal courts are split on this issue. In 1994, in Carpats Distribution Center v. Automotive Wholesalers Ass’n of New England, the court decided that a public accommodation includes areas more than physical structures. Dicta in a 1999 case, Doe v. Mutual of Omaha Insurance Company, also suggested that electronic websites could be considered in public facilities.
However, other courts have stated that the ADA was intended to apply only to an actual physical location. For example, the court in Ford v. Schering-Plough Corporation did not allow the ADA to be extended to an insurance policy as it should only apply to actual physical places.
