[NFBSF] [NFBC-Info] AB 2190

[Monica Wegner]

Hello NFBSF and Tim,



I'm still forming an opinion about this bill. For anyone interested, the text is available here via the California legislature<https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB2190>. But I do have questions and on first blush, I don’t think I would support this bill. That being said, I’m still forming an opinion so may not know all the facts.



Tim’s email indicated that the bill is a bit hard to understand. But I think it’s worth giving a go.



As drafted, AB 2190 appears to create a new affirmative defense to statutory-damages claims for website accessibility barriers if an entity can show certain disclosures, testing practices, and remediation steps. In practical terms, that reads to me as at least partly pro-defendant, even if the bill also includes some provisions aimed at website vendors and remediation. Put another way, it would move the goal posts from, does the disabled person have access to this thing, to has the business made a good faith effort to implement accessibility. We have discussed this before in chapter meetings; and I am generally opposed to codifying standards like WCAG into accessibility legislation. At least in part because the WCAG standard is largely controlled by big tech. Having a technical standard decide what is accessible does not benefit the disability community, especially when we are talking about new technologies where a standard may not apply.



From the bill’s preamble:
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 an unspecified number of days of receiving a written pre-lawsuit 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.



Monica


[Authored by a human;   not by AI.]<https://notbyai.fyi/>


-----Original Message-----
From: NFBC-Info <nfbc-info-bounces at nfbnet.org<mailto:nfbc-info-bounces at nfbnet.org>> On Behalf Of Tim Elder via NFBC-Info
Sent: Monday, March 30, 2026 11:01 AM
To: NFB of California List <nfbc-info at nfbnet.org<mailto:nfbc-info at nfbnet.org>>
Cc: Tim Elder <tim at timeldermusic.com<mailto:tim at timeldermusic.com>>
Subject: [NFBC-Info] AB 2190



We are pleased to join the many other disability rights organizations and

leaders supporting AB 2190 for website accessibility. This bill preserves

all existing rights to enforce against companies that don't make their

websites accessible. It creates new tools to enforce our rights. While the

bill is a bit hard to understand, it is in the best interest of blind, low

vision and DeafBlind individuals who want more websites to become accessible

without serial litigation. Please share and ask your fellow Californians to

support AB 2190.





You can read more about the bill here:



https://trackbill.com/bill/california-assembly-bill-2190-internet-website-ac

cessibility/2818711/









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