California: the Unruh Act for businesses, Section 508 and WCAG for the state

Section 51 entitles everyone in California to full and equal treatment in all business establishments. Subdivision (f) adds that a violation of the federal ADA is also a violation of this section. Federal Title III gives a private plaintiff an injunction and fees; once the same facts are pleaded under Unruh, Section 52 attaches money to each offense.

Section 52(a) makes the business liable for actual damages and any amount up to three times actual damages, but never less than $4,000 for each offense, plus attorney's fees. That floor is why so many website complaints are filed in California.

California's Civil Rights Department, which enforces the Act, answers the website question with it depends. Its published guidance says courts have applied the Unruh Act's accessibility provisions to websites associated with businesses that have physical locations, giving the example of a restaurant whose site must work with screen-reading software. It also says courts have found that online-only businesses are not places of public accommodation under the Act and do not carry the same obligations, while encouraging them to make their sites accessible anyway.

That distinction is the courts' to draw case by case. A business with a storefront in California should treat its website as covered. An online-only business should not read the CRD statement as a safe harbor and should ask counsel how the current case law applies to it.

Government Code 7405 requires state governmental entities to meet Section 508 and 36 CFR part 1194 when they develop, buy, maintain or use technology, including technology bought with state funds by other entities. Section 11135 extends ADA Title II protections to any program that receives state financial assistance, which reaches well beyond state agencies.

Section 11546.7 makes each agency's director and CIO sign and post a certification, every two years, that the site meets those sections and WCAG 2.0 Level AA or a later version. For vendors, the line to read is 7405(b): a contractor supplying technology to an entity covered by 11135 must agree to respond to and resolve accessibility complaints about its product.

Unruh borrows its standard from the ADA. Subdivision (f) does not define what an accessible website is; it imports whatever the federal ADA requires. Federal law has no Title III web regulation, and the Department of Justice's guidance of 18 March 2022 says WCAG and the Section 508 Standards provide helpful guidance without being binding. In practice a California claim is argued against WCAG 2.1 or 2.2 Level AA.

Public bodies in California carry the federal Title II rule as well as Gov. Code 11135: WCAG 2.1 Level AA on web content and mobile apps from April 26, 2027 for entities of 50,000 people or more and from April 26, 2028 for smaller ones and special districts. Section 11135(b) also applies any stronger state protection on top.

A private business: measure the site against WCAG 2.1 or 2.2 Level AA, fix what blocks a purchase, booking or contact, keep dated records of what was found and fixed, and publish an accessibility statement with a working contact. A vendor to the state: expect Section 508 conformance questions and a contract clause about handling complaints. A public body: the federal Title II rule applies on top of all of this.