Accessibility in Privacy

Executive Summary

The internet has rapidly expanded into nearly every aspect of modern life, from entertainment and ecommerce to education, healthcare, and beyond. Its growth has outpaced regulation, driven by ease of access, speed of connectivity, and high return on investment. Yet, as digital innovation surges forward, critical concerns such as parental controls, accessibility for people with disabilities, and online privacy have not progressed at the same pace. These areas remain disproportionately underserved in both policy and implementation.

As privacy laws evolve to better protect consumer data, a key challenge has emerged: Individuals with disabilities must be able to access and exercise their rights. For many, navigating cookie banners, privacy policies, or data subject request forms remains difficult. In some cases, it is impossible due to barriers in design, assistive technology compatibility, or cognitive overload.

This white paper examines the intersection of privacy rights and accessibility obligations across major regulatory frameworks, including the European Accessibility Act (EAA), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). These standards are intended to promote equitable access.

In addition to exploring where these laws align (or diverge), this paper outlines the risks and penalties for non-compliance and offers practical recommendations for businesses to improve accessibility within their privacy programs. The ultimate goal is to ensure that no individual is excluded from exercising their fundamental digital rights.

Introduction

In today’s digital-first world, privacy rights are only meaningful if people can access and exercise them. While many laws require that privacy tools — such as cookie consent banners, privacy notices, and opt-out forms — be easy to locate and use, they often fail to address whether those tools are accessible via assistive technology or keyboard shortcuts.

Individuals who are blind, deaf, cognitively impaired, or mobility-challenged frequently encounter disproportionate obstacles when navigating privacy interfaces. These include poor contrast and design of buttons and links, incompatibility with screen readers, unlabeled form fields, unclear instructions, or timeouts that fail to account for slower navigation speeds. For such users, asserting privacy rights becomes a frustrating or even impossible task.

This white paper bridges the gap between privacy compliance and digital accessibility, emphasizing the importance of inclusive design in upholding legal and ethical responsibilities. Both organizations and regulators should adopt accessibility as a foundational element of digital privacy and not an optional enhancement.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

The ADA is a U.S. civil rights law enacted in 1990 that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities across all areas of public life including employment, education, transportation, and access to public and private places open to the general public. The ADA ensures that people with disabilities have equal rights and opportunities to participate fully in society.

The law is divided into several titles, with Title II applying to state and local government services, and Title III applying to “places of public accommodation,” which includes most businesses and nonprofit service providers. While the ADA was written before the internet became ubiquitous, it has been increasingly interpreted by U.S. courts and federal agencies to apply to websites and digital services.

Facts from ADA.gov

ADA and Digital Accessibility

Though the ADA does not explicitly mention websites, the Department of Justice has stated that websites and mobile applications that offer goods or services must provide “effective communication” for users with disabilities. This means businesses must ensure that individuals who are blind, deaf, or have other disabilities can access and use digital content as effectively as non-disabled users.

However, a persistent challenge is the lack of clear technical standards in the law itself. In practice, U.S. courts and regulators have increasingly looked to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA as the prevailing benchmark for compliance, despite WCAG not being a legally binding standard under the ADA.

Legal Risk and Litigation Trends

In recent years, businesses have faced a surge in ADA-related lawsuits tied to inaccessible websites. In 2022 alone, over 2,300 digital accessibility lawsuits were filed in federal court, with New York accounting for more than 1,600 of those cases. The majority targeted consumer goods, ecommerce, and retail websites. This demonstrates the growing legal expectation that digital experiences be accessible.

Some high-profile cases:

• National Federation of the Blind v. Target Corp. (2008) – The NFB sued Target over an inaccessible website, ending in a landmark settlement that confirmed online stores fall under ADA public accommodation rules.
• Winn-Dixie (2017) – Juan Carlos Gil sued Winn-Dixie, and the court ruled that its website, tied to physical stores, must meet ADA requirements, setting a foundational precedent.
• Blue Apron (2017) – Blue Apron was sued despite lacking physical stores, clarifying that online-only businesses must comply with ADA Title III and highlighting the importance of digital access.
• Fox News Network (2018) – Fox News settled a lawsuit over missing alt text and poor keyboard navigation, sending a strong message that media companies must meet ADA website standards.
• Domino’s Pizza (2019) – Guillermo Robles successfully sued Domino’s over an inaccessible website and app, creating one of the most influential ADA web accessibility rulings.
• Beyonce Knowles (Parkwood Entertainment) (2019) – Beyoncé’s company was sued over missing alt text, inaccessible menus, and poor keyboard navigation on its site selling tickets and merchandise.
• Barnes & Noble (2022) – Barnes & Noble faced a lawsuit over screen reader incompatibility, with repeated cases highlighting ongoing accessibility gaps.
• Hasbro (2023) – Hasbro was sued under the ADA and New York laws for missing alt text and inaccessible forms, showing the overlap of federal and state regulations.
• Panama Jack (2023) – Panama Jack was accused of excluding blind users by relying on visual content, violating both ADA and New York state laws.
• KitchenAid (Whirlpool Corporation) (2023) – A 2023 class action accused KitchenAid of discriminating against visually impaired users through its inaccessible website. Plaintiffs argued this forced them to shop in stores, creating unequal access.
• Sweetgreen (2024) – Sweetgreen was sued again for WCAG violations, underscoring that accessibility is an ongoing responsibility, not a one-time fix.

These cases show that accessibility obligations extend beyond retail, cover both federal and state laws, and require continuous attention to digital compliance.

European Accessibility Act (EAA)

The EAA is a directive adopted by the European Union in 2019 (Directive (EU) 2019/882), but it will come into effect on June 28, 2025. This aims to improve the accessibility of products and services across the EU’s internal market. It is designed to remove barriers for people with disabilities and to harmonize accessibility requirements across Member States, reducing fragmentation and fostering innovation in accessible technologies.

Scope and Application

Unlike earlier legislation focused mainly on public sector websites (such as the Web Accessibility Directive), the EAA applies to both public and private sector entities, provided they offer relevant products or services within the EU. The scope includes:

• Websites and mobile apps of private businesses
• E-commerce platforms
• ATMs and banking services
• Telecommunication services and hardware
• Audiovisual media services
• Transportation ticketing and information services

The EAA mandates that digital products and services be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust — these terms closely align with the principles of WCAG. Businesses must ensure that consumers with disabilities can independently access and interact with their offerings.

Compliance and Deadlines

EU Member States were required to transpose the EAA into national law by June 28, 2022, with enforcement beginning June 28, 2025. This transitional period was meant to give businesses time to align their digital offerings with accessibility requirements, but enforcement will soon become binding.

Connection to Privacy and User Rights

The EAA is particularly relevant to digital privacy when it comes to accessing privacy notices, cookie banners, user settings, consent mechanisms, and data subject rights forms. If any of these elements are presented through inaccessible websites or mobile apps, organizations may not only violate accessibility laws but also fail to uphold privacy rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or other data protection frameworks.

Enforcement and Penalties

Enforcement is delegated to national authorities in each EU country. Non-compliance can lead to administrative fines, injunctions, or product/service bans, depending on local enforcement bodies. Additionally, organizations may face reputational consequences, complaints to data protection authorities, and potential civil actions from advocacy groups or individuals.

California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and Accessibility

The CCPA, and its amended version under the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), is known as one of the most comprehensive consumer data privacy laws in the United States. It grants California residents a set of enforceable rights over their personal data, including the right to know, delete, correct, and opt out of the sale or sharing of their information. While primarily focused on data privacy, the CCPA also explicitly includes accessibility requirements which is a crucial but often overlooked aspect of compliance.

Accessibility Requirements Under CCPA/CPRA

According to Section 1798.130(a)(2) of the CCPA:
“A business shall make the information available to consumers in a readily accessible format that allows the consumer to fully understand the information being presented. […] The information shall be accessible to consumers with disabilities and shall be provided in an alternative format upon request.”

The CPRA strengthened this mandate by making it clear that privacy notices, rights request mechanisms, and other required disclosures must be accessible to individuals with disabilities.

Practical Implications for Businesses

This legal language requires more than simply placing a privacy policy on a website. It demands that all CCPA-related user interfaces—including:

• Privacy notices and disclosures
• “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” links
• Cookie consent tools
• Data subject rights request forms

“…must meet recognized accessibility standards…”

While the CCPA itself doesn’t explicitly mention WCAG or the ADA, it does require businesses to provide notices that are “reasonably accessible” to consumers with disabilities. This accessibility requirement is often interpreted in conjunction with WCAG 2.1 Level AA guidelines, as WCAG is a widely recognized standard for web accessibility. The ADA, while not directly referenced, also influences accessibility requirements for digital platforms, including websites and apps, and WCAG 2.1 AA is often seen as the technical standard for achieving ADA compliance in these areas.

Risk of Overlapping Violations

Many CCPA-related interfaces are deployed via modals, banners, or dynamic overlays—features that are notoriously problematic for assistive technologies if not properly coded. A cookie banner that cannot be dismissed with a keyboard or a privacy request form that lacks proper label tags is not only a barrier to privacy rights, but also a potential accessibility lawsuit waiting to happen.

This intersectionality reinforces the need for cross-functional collaboration between privacy teams, developers, and accessibility professionals to ensure compliance across both regulatory domains.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are internationally recognized technical standards developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to improve the accessibility of digital content. Although not a law themselves, WCAG standards are widely adopted and increasingly cited by legal frameworks—including the ADA, EAA, and CCPA—as the de facto benchmark for determining whether digital interfaces are accessible to users with disabilities.

Versions and Levels

The most commonly referenced standard today is WCAG 2.1 Level AA, though WCAG 2.2 was officially published in October 2023 and builds upon previous versions. WCAG is organized into four foundational principles, requiring that digital content be:

• Perceivable – Information must be presented in ways users can perceive (e.g., text alternatives for images, captions for videos).
• Operable – Interface components must be navigable (e.g., keyboard accessibility, enough time to complete tasks).
• Understandable – Content must be readable and predictable (e.g., consistent navigation, clear instructions).
• Robust – Content must be compatible with assistive technologies (e.g., screen readers, alternative input devices).

Each guideline includes testable success criteria grouped into three levels:

• Level A: Minimum level of accessibility
• Level AA: Widely accepted standard for legal compliance
• Level AAA: Highest level of accessibility (not typically required)

Link to WCAG 2.1, Link to WCAG 2.2

Role in Privacy Compliance

Privacy notices, banners, and request forms must be accessible under WCAG if they are to serve all users equitably. For example:

• A “Do Not Sell My Info” banner must be visible to screen readers and navigable by keyboard.
• A privacy policy must be structured with semantic HTML, proper heading levels, and alternative text for any icons or diagrams.
• Request forms should include ARIA labels, error handling, and sufficient contrast for users with low vision.

Inaccessible interfaces, even if legally compliant in substance, fail in practice if they cannot be used by individuals with disabilities. WCAG provides the practical design framework to bridge that gap.

WCAG and Legal Enforcement

While WCAG is not a law, it is routinely cited in lawsuits and regulatory enforcement. Courts evaluating ADA claims often use WCAG 2.1 AA to determine whether a site offers “effective communication.” The EAA explicitly encourages the use of harmonized standards such as WCAG to ensure compliance. The CCPA’s requirement to provide privacy information “in an accessible format” implicitly assumes adherence to WCAG or similar standards.

Global Comparisons and Overlapping Legal Requirements for International Enterprises

While accessibility and privacy are often regulated separately, international frameworks are increasingly recognizing their intersection. Countries are implementing accessibility laws that impact not only general digital content but also the interfaces and tools used to manage personal data. Understanding these overlapping obligations is essential for global organizations aiming to build inclusive, legally compliant digital experiences.

Canada: Accessible Canada Act (ACA)

Canada’s Accessible Canada Act (ACA) came into effect in 2019 with the goal of achieving a barrier-free Canada by 2040. It applies to federally regulated organizations and includes web accessibility provisions aligned with WCAG 2.1 AA. While not directly tied to privacy law, any digital interface used to display privacy policies or submit requests must still comply with accessibility rules.

United Kingdom: Equality Act 2010

In the UK, the Equality Act 2010 requires organizations to make “reasonable adjustments” to avoid discriminating against people with disabilities. This includes digital services and extends to privacy notices, cookie tools, and forms. Public sector websites are also subject to additional WCAG-based accessibility regulations under the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Australia: Disability Discrimination Act (DDA)

Australia’s DDA 1992 prohibits discrimination based on disability and has been interpreted by courts to include web accessibility. The Human Rights Commission recommends WCAG 2.1 AA compliance, including for privacy-related content.

Key Factors:

• WCAG is widely considered the global gold standard referenced across most accessibility laws.
• Privacy obligations are not siloed. If privacy tools are digital, they must meet accessibility requirements.
• Many jurisdictions enforce accessibility through civil penalties, public complaints, or lawsuits, increasing legal and reputational risks.
• Accessibility is no longer a regional requirement. Global digital operations now require global compliance strategies.

Recommendations for Organizations

Ensuring privacy compliance for individuals with disabilities requires more than checking boxes. It demands a commitment to inclusive design, organizational alignment, and strategic investment. Below are actionable recommendations to help organizations close the gap between privacy and accessibility:

1. Design Privacy Interfaces with Accessibility in Mind

• Follow WCAG 2.1 AA (or 2.2 AA) standards for all privacy touchpoints. This includes banners, modals, preference centers, and request forms.
• Ensure elements are keyboard-navigable, support screen readers, and have appropriate ARIA labels and semantic HTML.
• Use clear, plain language and avoid legal jargon in privacy disclosures, making content easier to understand for users with cognitive disabilities.

2. Conduct Accessibility Audits

• Regularly audit privacy tools and flows using both automated tools and manual testing with assistive technologies (e.g., screen readers, voice navigation).
• Include users with disabilities in usability testing to uncover real-world accessibility issues often missed by automated scans.

3. Train Cross-Functional Teams

• Provide accessibility training for legal, marketing, UX/UI, and engineering teams.
• Embed accessibility into your privacy-by-design and software development life cycle (SDLC) processes to ensure it’s built in, not retrofitted.

4. Document and Publish an Accessibility Statement

• Create a public accessibility statement describing your compliance efforts and providing contact information for reporting barriers.
• Include language that acknowledges privacy interfaces as part of your accessibility commitment.

5. Monitor Regulatory Developments

• Stay informed of updates to international accessibility laws (e.g., EAA enforcement in 2025) and how that affects privacy obligations.
• Align your compliance efforts globally to avoid fragmentation and reduce risk.

Accessible Privacy Compliance with Clarip

The intersection of privacy and accessibility has become a global compliance imperative. At Clarip, our platform is uniquely positioned to help organizations bridge that gap.

Clarip Accessibility-Integrated Privacy Tools

Clarip’s platform is designed with accessibility in mind from the ground up, offering tools that help companies meet legal requirements while providing inclusive experiences for all users:

• WCAG-Compliant Privacy Banners and Consent Tools – Clarip meetis WCAG 2.1 AA standards out of the box. Our banners are fully responsive, keyboard-accessible, and screen-reader-friendly.
• Accessible Data Subject Request Forms – Clarip provides customizable request forms that include clear instructions, ARIA attributes, form validation for assistive tech, and error messages readable by screen readers.
• Preference Centers with Inclusive UX – Users can manage cookie preferences, opt out of data selling/sharing, and withdraw consent through interfaces built for visual, motor, and cognitive accessibility.
• End-to-End Testing and Monitoring – Clarip includes accessibility validation checkpoints within the privacy experience, ensuring updates to banners or forms remain compliant as design or regulations evolve.

Dedicated Support for Compliance and Accessibility

• Expert Guidance – Our privacy and accessibility experts help interpret global laws and implement them effectively in your tech stack.
• Audit Support – We assist with documenting compliance for both privacy and accessibility audits, internal or regulatory.
• Custom Integrations – Clarip’s solutions integrate seamlessly with your CMS, tag manager, and marketing platforms, ensuring accessibility doesn’t disrupt business workflows.