Proposed California Digital Accessibility Law Would Halt Startups in the Golden State

For decades, California’s Silicon Valley has been the global epicenter of technology startups. From the mid-century hard tech firms like Fairchild and Hewlett-Packard who earned the Valley its moniker, to the consumer-facing digital companies of today like PayPal and Airbnb, California’s culture of bootstrap entrepreneurship has fueled countless successful launches.

But recently the California Assembly has been putting kinks in the state’s startup pipeline. The latest instance is Assembly Bill 1757 (AB 1757), a proposal that would make small businesses vulnerable to lawsuits if they fail to comply with complex guidelines regarding digital accessibility for the vision impaired.

Continue reading the entire piece here at The Orange County Register (paywall)

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Jordan McGillis is a Paulson Policy Analyst at the Manhattan Institute. 

Photo by George Rose/Getty Images