The Unruh Civil Rights Act requires persons within the jurisdiction of the state to be free and equal and, regardless of the person's sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, citizenship, primary language, or immigration status, to be entitled to the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, privileges, or services in all business establishments, as prescribed, and makes a violation of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) a violation of the act. Existing law imposes liability upon a person who denies, aids, or incites a denial of, or makes any discrimination or distinction contrary to, rights afforded by law for actual damages suffered, exemplary damages, a civil penalty, and attorney's fees, as specified, to any person who was denied the specified rights. Existing law also imposes liability upon a person, firm, or corporation that denies or interferes with admittance to, or enjoyment of, public facilities or otherwise interferes with the rights of an individual with a disability, as specified, for damages and attorney's fees to a person who was denied those rights. This bill would grant to an entity an affirmative defense to a claim seeking statutory damages under the provisions described above on the basis of a specific accessibility barrier on the entity's internet website, as defined, if the entity provided evidence to the plaintiff demonstrating within 30 days of receiving a written prelawsuit demand from the plaintiff that either (1) the entity published a digital accessibility report on the accessibility page of its internet website disclosing the specific access barrier and updated that report to reflect remediation of the access barrier or (2) that various things were true regarding the entity's efforts to identify and remediate access barriers on its internet website, including the entity had a reasonable and good faith basis to believe that the internet website was accessible and conformed with the internet website accessibility standard, as specified. This bill would also prohibit a resource service provider from, in exchange for money or any other form of remuneration, negligently, recklessly, or knowingly constructing, licensing, distributing, or maintaining for online use a resource or part of an internet website that causes an entity's internet website to be inaccessible or not conformant with the internet website accessibility standard if the resource or part of the internet website is within the control of the resource service provider to remediate or from making a false representation that a resource or part of an internet website is accessible or conforms to the internet website accessibility standard. The bill would authorize a small business entity, as defined, and certain public attorneys, including the Attorney General, to bring a civil action to enforce that provision, as specified.
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People with Disabilities
Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including telephone corporations. Existing law requires the commission to design and implement a program to provide a telecommunications device capable of serving the needs of individuals who are deaf or hearing impaired, together with a single party line, at no charge additional to the basic exchange rate, to any subscriber who is certified as an individual who is deaf or hearing impaired by a licensed physician and surgeon, audiologist, or a qualified state or federal agency, as determined by the commission. Existing law also authorizes a physician assistant or nurse practitioner to certify the needs of an individual who has been diagnosed by a physician and surgeon as being deaf or hard of hearing to participate in the program after reviewing the medical records or copies of the medical records containing that diagnosis. Existing law additionally requires the commission to design and implement a program whereby specialized or supplemental telephone communications equipment may be provided to a subscriber who is certified to be disabled at no charge additional to the basic exchange rate. Existing law requires that the certification, including a statement of visual or medical need for specialized telecommunications equipment, be provided by a licensed optometrist, physician and surgeon, physician assistant, or nurse practitioner, acting within the scope of practice of the applicable license, or by a qualified state or federal agency as determined by the commission. Existing law additionally requires the commission to design and implement a program to provide access to a speech-generating device to a subscriber who is certified as having a speech disability at no charge additional to the basic exchange rate. Existing law requires that the certification be provided by a licensed physician, licensed speech-language pathologist, nurse practitioner, or qualified state or federal agency. This bill would remove all of the above-described certification requirements for a subscriber and would make conforming changes. Under existing law, a violation of an order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because a violation of a commission action implementing the bill's requirements would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
