WASHINGTON–Sixty-one members of Congress representing both parties have sent a letter to the Department of Justice requesting guidance on how the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) pertains to websites.
The letter follows a wave of lawsuits against financial institutions, including credit unions, alleging the websites are out of compliance with the ADA.
CUToday.info first had coverage of the potential threats to CUs here.
In a statement, CUNA and credit union leagues urged Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) and Ron DeSantis (R-FL) to support credit union efforts to address ambiguities in website accessibility requirements that are spurring frivolous class action litigation.
"The DOJ began considering developing regulations to address website ADA issues over seven years ago but never completed the process, leaving an absence of clear standards,” said CUNA CEO Jim Nussle. “This has and continues to cause frivolous class action litigation that is costly to credit unions and their members. CUNA and the leagues are seeking to resolve this matter with the support of Congress and by seeking immediate guidance from DOJ. At our urging, Rep. Swalwell and DeSantis's bipartisan letter calls on the DOJ to finalize and issue the regulation, and we thank them for their leadership.”
The letter separately asks the DOJ to resume its plans to issue regulations on website accessibility requirements under the ADA. A 2010 DOJ Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) raised this issue, but the rule was never finalized and has been classified as “inactive.”