accessibility glossary

Safe Harbor Provision

A safe harbor provision, where one exists in accessibility law, is a rule that limits or removes liability for organizations that meet specific conditions, such as already conforming to a named technical standard.

True safe harbors are rare in web accessibility law. Section 508, for example, exempts a covered entity from re-remediating content that was already compliant before an update to the standard, and California’s Unruh Act offers a limited damages reduction (from $4,000 to $1,000 per violation) for businesses that complete a CASp inspection before being sued, though that specific provision is written for physical access rather than confirmed for websites.

The ADA itself has no general safe harbor for accessible-but-imperfect websites, which is why ongoing conformance, not a one-time fix, is the only reliable protection.

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