Assert One's Rights
Asserting your rights means taking formal action to demand accessibility -- through legal complaints, policy escalation, or public accountability. It's a last-resort compensation when every other avenue has failed. It requires knowledge of the law, courage to speak up, and often, personal resources that many don't have.
Role in the ENABLE Model
This is where the burden falls when care fails repeatedly across every builder-side stage. The onus shifts to the individual to fight institutional neglect -- often alone. It reveals just how late the system is to recognize the harm already done.
Why it happens
When barriers persist despite feedback, workarounds, or assistive tools, people may have no choice but to escalate. They're forced into roles as advocates, plaintiffs, and whistleblowers when neglect leaves them with no other path to access.
Examples
Justice Department Sues Uber for Denying Rides to Passengers with Service Dogs, Wheelchairs (September 2025)
-- U.S. Department of Justice
- The DOJ filed a lawsuit seeking $125 million from Uber for systematic discrimination against passengers with disabilities. The complaint alleges Uber drivers routinely refuse service to guide dog users and wheelchair users, and that Uber charged improper "cleaning fees" for service animal shedding. This action follows over a decade of complaints and a 2017 settlement that failed to stop the discrimination -- demonstrating that when users assert their rights, enforcement may take years.
DOT Issues $50 Million Penalty Against American Airlines (October 23, 2024)
-- U.S. Department of Transportation
- The DOT fined American Airlines $50 million -- 25 times larger than previous disability-related airline fines -- for mishandling thousands of wheelchairs and providing unsafe, undignified treatment to wheelchair users between 2019-2023. This landmark penalty came after users asserted their rights through complaints to DOT, demonstrating that legal protections can produce meaningful accountability when enforcement agencies act.
Bashin v. California: $2 Million Qui Tam Settlement for Web Accessibility Violations (2024)
-- Accessibility.Works
- Bryan Bashin, a California resident with vision loss, used the qui tam whistleblower provision of the California False Claims Act to win a landmark $2 million settlement after ReserveCalifornia.com failed to meet its contractual WCAG requirements. This innovative legal approach -- asserting rights through fraud statutes rather than ADA alone -- created new accountability pathways for web accessibility.
- The National Federation of the Blind files complaint against Uber for its inaction around discrimination. (2014)
- Filing an ADA complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice.
- Suing a rideshare company for failing to accommodate wheelchair users.
- Bringing inaccessible websites to the attention of OCR (Office for Civil Rights).
- Joining a class-action lawsuit against an employer's inaccessible hiring platform.
- Repeatedly contacting a university's disability office over inaccessible course materials.
Compensation sounds like
“I filed a complaint with the DOJ. I didn't want to, but they weren't listening.”
“They finally made the PDF accessible -- after I got a lawyer involved.”
“I showed them the WCAG violations and gave them 30 days to fix it.”
Burden sounds like
“I spent hours documenting every failure on their site, just to be taken seriously.”
“I'm not a lawyer. Why should I have to become one just to access my bank?”
“I had to relive everything in front of a hearing board. I just wanted to use the service.”
Real-world Scenario
After being locked out of his student portal due to inaccessible CAPTCHA challenges, Jordan, a blind graduate student, reported the issue multiple times. When nothing changed, he filed an OCR complaint with the Department of Education. The university only took action after the investigation began -- updating their login system months later. But in the meantime, Jordan missed critical deadlines and felt isolated from the rest of campus life.