by Morgan Hale*
This Contribution argues that disability testers challenging non-compliant websites under the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) have Article III standing by analogizing to Fair Housing Act (“FHA”) testers in Havens Realty Corp. v. Coleman. Despite the Supreme Court’s increasingly restrictive standing jurisprudence, the broad statutory language of the ADA parallels that of the FHA, preserving a private right of action for ADA testers. By challenging the notion that testers’ voluntary encounters with discrimination undermine their injury, this Contribution asserts that both informational and stigmatic harms remain cognizable injuries under the ADA for testers. The ADA has the unique goal of addressing both animus-based and ability-based discrimination resulting from unaccommodating goods and services. To eradicate ability-based discrimination and ensure that people with disabilities can fully and equally partake in society, the availability of accessibility information is paramount. Moreover, when people with disabilities encounter unaccommodating goods or services, they are injured with equivalent stigmatic force as individuals facing animus-based discrimination. Thus, recognizing tester standing through informational and stigmatic theories of harms is essential to achieving the ADA’s aim of eradicating systemic disability discrimination.