Unruh Act Definition: California Website Accessibility Law

California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act can trigger $4,000 statutory damages per access barrier on inaccessible websites. See how it ties to ADA claims, why intent doesn’t matter, and steps to meet WCAG 2.1 AA.

By Douglas Wade, Attorney

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Have a quick question? We answered nearly 2000 FAQs.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. The Unruh Act: What is it?

3. The distinction between the ADA and Unruh

4. Why It Matters for Your Business

5. Who Must Adhere to the California Unruh Act?

6. Compliance Standards

7. Creating Accessible Websites

8. Conclusion

Introduction

California is a global heavyweight. It has a $3.7 trillion economy. It is the biggest player in the U.S and the fifth-largest economy on the planet. For any company, local or international, access to the California market is the ultimate prize.

But that access comes with strings attached. You have to play by California’s rules if you want to sell to Californians.

One of the biggest “gotchas” for modern businesses is the Unruh Civil Rights Act. This law is a zero-tolerance policy against discrimination, specifically protecting people with disabilities. This rule used to apply mostly to physical storefronts. Now it applies to the digital world, too.

You cannot have a website that is hard to use for someone with a visual or hearing impairment. You’re violating the law.

We’re diving into the nuts and bolts of the Unruh Act to show you how to protect your business and make your website accessible to everyone.

The Unruh Act: What is it?

Look at the Unruh Act (Civil Code Section 51) as California’s “Open to All” mandate. It has stood as the state’s primary weapon against discrimination.

But here is the catch: The “door” isn’t just made of wood and hinges anymore.

The Digital Expansion

For a long time, this was a “sidewalk and storefront” law. That changed when California courts decided that websites are “public accommodations” too.

If your site is built in a way that blocks someone with a visual impairment or a motor disability, you aren’t just losing a lead. You are effectively locking them out of your business. In the eyes of a California judge, a website that won’t work with a screen reader is no different than a doctor’s office with a flight of stairs and no elevator.

The “Accidental” Violation

This is the part that keeps business owners up at night: You can break the law without ever meaning to.

Having a “Diversity & Inclusion” emblem on your homepage is irrelevant.
It doesn’t matter if you didn’t know your developer used bad code.
The law focuses on the result, not the intent.

If a barrier exists, discrimination is happening. Period. You are legally responsible for the technical accessibility of your site, even if you’ve never looked at a line of code in your life.

Why Businesses Are Scared

The Unruh Act has “teeth” that federal laws (like the ADA) don’t. In California, a person who encounters a barrier on your site can sue for statutory damages. This means you could be on the hook for thousands of dollars in automatic fines per violation, plus their attorney fees. It’s a massive financial incentive for plaintiffs to go after non-compliant sites.

The Bottom Line: You aren’t just building a website; you’re managing a civil rights liability. If that site isn’t accessible, you’re leaving your front door wide open for a lawsuit.

The distinction between the ADA and Unruh

While people often lump the Unruh Act and the ADA together, they are two very different legal hammers. The ADA is a federal law that covers the entire country, while the Unruh Act is California’s own, much sharper version of civil rights protection.

In California, these two laws are “married.” If you break the ADA, you have automatically broken the Unruh Act. But the way they punish you is where things get interesting.

The Federal Rule: The ADA

The Americans with Disabilities Act is broad. It covers everything from how you hire employees to how buses and government buildings operate across all 50 states.

The Goal: Its main purpose is to “fix the problem.”
The Penalty: Usually, the ADA doesn’t pay the victim directly. Instead, it results in Injunctive Relief. A court order forcing you to fix the website or install the ramp.
The Fines: The Department of Justice can fine you. That money goes to the government. It does not go to the person who sued you.

The California Hammer: The Unruh Act

This is why California is the “litigation capital” for accessibility. Unlike the ADA, the Unruh Act is designed to compensate the victim with cold, hard cash.

Statutory Damages: This is the big one. In California, a victim can get a minimum of $4,000 per violation. This could be a $12,000 bill if they visit your inaccessible website three times.
Actual Damages: The company must also cover any actual financial losses brought on by the discrimination.
Attorney’s Fees: If you lose an Unruh case, you don’t just pay your lawyer—you have to pay for the plaintiff’s lawyer, too. This is often where the real bankruptcy-level costs hide.

Why It Matters for Your Business

The ADA wants you to be accessible. The Unruh Act wants you to be accessible and makes it incredibly expensive if you aren’t. Because Unruh includes extra protected groups—like sexual orientation and gender identity—and offers high-dollar payouts, it is a much more dangerous law for a business owner to ignore.

The Bottom Line: A lawsuit may simply require you to update your website in accordance with the ADA. The identical case might result in automatic penalties and legal fees of tens of thousands of dollars under Unruh.

Who Must Adhere to the California Unruh Act?

You’re on the hook for the Unruh Act if you’re running a business and have even a single customer in California.

A lot of people think, “I don’t have an office in Los Angeles. I don’t care.” That is a massive mistake. California law doesn’t care where your desk is; it cares where your customers are.

Here is the reality of who actually has to follow these rules:

It’s Not About Your Address

You are “doing business” in the state if you sell products or services to people living in California. It doesn’t matter if your company is based in Texas, Florida, or London. If a Californian can land on your site and interact with your brand, you are subject to the Unruh Act.

Your Website is a Public Place

The biggest shift in recent years is how the courts view the internet. In the past, “public accommodation” meant a physical store with a front door. Today, judges see your website as the front door.

If a Californian with a disability can’t use your site, you’ve effectively “blocked the entrance” to your business.

This applies to e-commerce stores, blogs, service providers, and even purely digital platforms.

The Reach is Global

Because California is such a huge part of the economy, this law has basically become a national standard by default. Most companies find it impossible to “block” California users, so they have to make their entire digital presence compliant just to avoid the risk of a lawsuit from the West Coast.

The Bottom Line: If you have a website and you aren’t actively blocking every IP address in California, you need to comply. The Unruh Act doesn’t care about your zip code—it cares about the civil rights of the people using your site.

Compliance Standards

The Unruh Act is a bit of a legal ghost. The text of the law doesn’t mention a single word about “coding,” “font sizes,” or “alt-text.” It’s an old-school civil rights law. It simply says: You cannot discriminate.

But in California, what the law doesn’t say is exactly what gets you sued

Since there isn’t an official government manual for website design, the courts have essentially outsourced the rules to a group called the W3C. They created the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines). If you’re a business owner in California, these guidelines are now your “speed limit.”

The “POUR” Test

To stay out of a $4,000-per-violation lawsuit, your site has to pass four tests. If it fails even one, you’re a target.

Perceivable: Screen reader for graphics to help blind people. Captions to help deaf people.
Operable: This is the big one. Can I use your site without a mouse? You’ve just broken the law if someone needs to utilize a keyboard or voice command to navigate, and your “Check Out” button isn’t compatible with the “Enter” key.
Understandable: Don’t make it a puzzle. Your contact form is deemed inaccessible if it malfunctions without providing the user with an explanation.
Robust: Does your code play nice with the software people with disabilities actually use? If your site’s code is “messy,” screen readers will just read out gibberish.

The Grade You Actually Need

The WCAG isn’t a “pass/fail” system; it’s a sliding scale.

Level A: The absolute basement. You’re almost guaranteed to get a demand letter if you’re only here.
Level AA: This is the finish line. WCAG 2.1 Level AA is the standard that judges & insurance companies look for. If you hit this, you have a massive shield.
Level AAA: Great for government sites, but overkill for most businesses.

The “Band-Aid” Trap

Be very careful with those “accessibility widgets” (the little blue icons you see on the side of websites). While they claim to make you compliant in one click, plaintiff attorneys actually look for those icons. Why? Because they know the underlying code is probably still broken.

The Bottom Line: California doesn’t care if you intended to be inclusive. They only care if a person with a disability was able to buy your product or use your service without hitting a wall. If your site isn’t Level AA compliant, you’re essentially leaving your vault open for a lawsuit.

Creating Accessible Websites

An “Accessibility Checklist” is a good map, but it won’t drive the car for you. In California, the Unruh Act doesn’t give points for “trying.” If a user with a disability hits a digital wall on your site, you are liable. Period.

To keep the lawyers away, you have to move past the theory and fix the actual “pipes” of your website.

The Big Five: Fix These First

If you want to stop a demand letter before it’s written, these five things need to be flawless:

Keyboard-Only Access: Put your mouse in a drawer. Can you still buy something on your site? If you can’t “Tab” through the menu or “Enter” to checkout, you’re a sitting duck for a lawsuit.
The “Alt-Text” Rule: Every image needs a description in the backend code. If a screen reader hits a photo of a “50% Off” coupon and just says “Graphic 004,” you’ve just blocked a blind customer from a sale.
No Silent Videos: If you have video content without captions, you’re breaking the law. It’s that simple.
Contrast Matters: Light gray lettering on a white backdrop appears clean. It is a legal nightmare, though. It is regarded as an inaccessible barrier for those with limited vision if your contrast ratio isn’t at least 3:1.
Speak the Right Language: You must specify the precise language that the website is utilizing. This guarantees that screen readers won’t attempt to interpret French-accented English content.

Why “Automated” Fixes Fail

You’ve probably seen those “one-click” accessibility widgets—the little blue wheelchair icons. Be careful. 1. Lawyers target them: Many plaintiff attorneys specifically search for those icons because they know the site’s underlying code is probably still broken. 2. Scanners are blind: An automated scan only catches about 30% of errors. It can’t tell you if your alt-text actually makes sense or if a pop-up is impossible to close with a keyboard.

The Real-World Solution

True Unruh compliance requires human testing. You need a developer who can go into the CSS and HTML to fix the structure, and ideally, a real person using a screen reader to verify that the “front door” is actually open.

The Bottom Line: Whether you’re in San Francisco or Syracuse, if you sell to Californians, you’re playing by their rules. An accessible site isn’t just a legal shield. It’s how you make sure you aren’t accidentally turning away 20% of your potential customers.

Conclusion

The Unruh Act is not abstract or theoretical. It shows up in real lawsuits, real demand letters, and real settlement checks. Businesses don’t get much leeway here. A website that blocks a person with a handicap is treated by the law in the same manner as a locked door or a set of stairs without a ramp.

What catches many companies off guard is how little intent matters. You can mean well. You can hire a developer. You can add an accessibility badge. None of that changes the outcome if a user can’t navigate your site. In California, the responsibility stays with the business—full stop.

For companies serving Californians, accessibility is no longer just a design issue or a compliance checkbox. It’s a risk issue. Fixing problems early costs far less than defending a lawsuit later. It guarantees that individuals who are legally entitled to equal access are not covertly excluded by your company.

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Unruh Act Definition: California Website Accessibility Law

Introduction

The Unruh Act: What is it?

The distinction between the ADA and Unruh

Why It Matters for Your Business

Who Must Adhere to the California Unruh Act?

Compliance Standards

Creating Accessible Websites

Conclusion

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