ADA Compliance

ADA compliance. What is it, and what does it mean for websites? In short, ADA compliance is ensuring your website or app complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). And in reality, ADA compliance is something every company and web owner should know about. Read on to learn why.

What does the Americans with Disabilities Act cover?

The ADA covers various aspects of accessibility for people with disabilities and prohibits discrimination, but the part affecting how businesses serve customers is “ADA Title III.” It covers public areas like schooling, public accommodations, and transportation.

Public accommodation covers practically all places of work, like restaurants, movie theaters, doctor’s offices, and pharmacies.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines help ensure you comply with ADA. The WCAG 2.0 has a three-tiered grading system-

• Level A- wherein your website is accessible by some users
• Level AA- where your website is accessible by most users
• Level AAA- where all users can access your website.

It’s generally enough to meet Level-AA compliance standards, but if you don’t want to leave anybody out, you can make significant changes to make your site 100% compliant.

Areas of focus

The WCAG guidelines divide accessibility issues into four groups, which conveniently fit the acronym P.O.U.R. These areas of focus indicate that your website or app should:

• 1: Be perceivable

  Visitors should be able to perceive all the information on your website, including images, videos, and text. And for your site to be perceivable, you should offer alternatives to create complete accessibility.

  For example, there should be an alternative for listening to text for users who can’t see.

• 2: Be operable

  All visitors should be able to easily navigate your website and use all your featured offers like all your site tools. And to do this, you need your web designer to create HTML code current with ADA compliance standards.

• 3: Be understandable

  Your users should also be able to understand everything they read and the audio descriptions listen to. Providing instructions that come up with the site tools, navigation menu, and other features your website offers helps implement it.

• 4: Be robust

  Disabled users will want the same experience as those without impairments. So treat them the same by providing a complete user experience, and do not shorten descriptions and explanations; keep your website content universal.

Is ADA compliance mandatory for websites?

Yes, ADA compliance is mandatory federal law for websites. It was always clear that ADA affected physical businesses. The 1990 bill, however, never predicted today’s internet use, and till the past decade, many insisted that websites do not qualify as public places of accommodation.

Once it was proven that the internet and websites have a huge role in deciding how consumers do business, it was clear that ADA covers the online world too. And with people with disabilities also needing access to websites and applications, it was decided that websites, internet portals, and online stores must also be accessible.

And attaining ADA compliance for a website is a two-step process. The first involves a website audit, and the second is a website remediation based on the audit.

ADA compliance is essential, as these are the two main things that will happen if your website isn’t:

Firstly, ADA or Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act covers practically all commercial websites. Besides, with legitimate plaintiffs and advocacy groups defending web accessibility rights, plaintiffs and attorneys always look out for cases and easy settlements.

Then there’s DEI or Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, which is the rights of people with disabilities to digital inclusion. With the pandemic proving the importance of the web for practically everything in public life, failure to comply with the DEI only leads to legal consequences.

Secondly, more than 61 million people in the US suffer from disabilities. And there are 71 million boomers with billions in discretionary spending and suffering from similar vision, hearing, and cognition challenges.

So you lose out on their business if you don’t have an ADA-compliant website.

What are the ADA website compliance standards?

The biggest difficulty in meeting website compliance is that there are no specific laws to follow. On the contrary, it also means that noncompliance with any voluntary technical standards for web accessibility doesn’t always indicate noncompliance with ADA.

However, while the US Department of Justice (DOJ) hasn’t adopted any official ADA legal standards, it repeatedly references WCAG 2.0. At present, WCAG 2.1 is the best measure for web accessibility.

So sites meeting WCAG 2.1 level AA compliance are unlikely to be filed for lack of accessibility.

Why SMBs should take ADA lawsuits seriously

While it is usually web accessibility cases against giants like Nike and Beyonce that have made the headlines, small and medium businesses have had their share of lawsuitIt’st, it’s estimated that about 85% of ADA lawsuits filed in the federal government and state courts in 2018 were filed against SMBs.

And as the court usually favors the plaintiff, small business owners often have no option but to settle out of court. And settling these lawsuits would be devastating to even medium businesses, as the average ADA lawsuit settlement costs $35,000.

So it’s proven that SMBs must take digital accessibility seriously, especially if they want to keep their business safe from ADA web accessibility legal actions.

How Much Does A WCAG Audit Cost?

There is no fixed cost or price for a WCAG audit. It depends on various factors like the size and complexity of your website or app and your ultimate goals for the audit.

About your audit goals, it depends if you want to do the minimum to avoid a lawsuit or if you want to ensure maximum inclusion. You have to remember that the amount you end up spending finally is the amount you are willing to spend to avoid potential legal risks and to ensure your website is accessible to most visitors.

Accordingly, the audit can cost between $3k to $30k for most websites.

You can save by spreading the costs across multiple budget cycles. Ensure your audit includes human testing because it provides much more feedback than an audit with only automated testing.

Why are there so many ADA website compliance lawsuits?

There are various reasons for ADA website accessibility cases increasing over the past few years.

• The first is the massive shift in commerce in the digital sphere. E-commerce has risen from a total market value of $449 billion in 2017 to $13 trillion in 2021. There has even been a spike of 50.5% in online retail purchases in 2021 compared to sales growth in 2019.
• Besides, we now tend to do much more online today, like booking appointments, checking bus and flight times, and ordering food and cab. With this comes an increased need for web interactions, making web accessibility to everyone essential in our daily lives.
• Besides, there has been an increased awareness of web accessibility over the past few years. The increased knowledge about ADA title III means that people with disabilities now know they have legal recourses if they cannot complete online activities.
• Lastly, millennial and generation Z is less likely to keep their mouths shut if faced with discrimination and inaccessibility issues. The US legal environment also makes it much more advantageous for users with disabilities to sue businesses under the ADA Title III.That is why, unlike other areas of law, ADA ensures that the defendant pays the plaintiff’s legal fees. With this, disabled users have nothing to lose when filing a digital accessibility lawsuit.

FAQ

Here is a list of the most common questions about website ADA compliance:

• 1. What is ADA compliance?

  ADA stands for American Disabilities Act which states that software, hardware, websites, and physical businesses are accessible to people with disabilities. ADA compliance is a proactive effort to make organizations inclusive and accessible to everyone and also helps organizations grow.

  The United States Department of Justice released specific guidelines for public organizations to become accessible to people with disabilities in 2010. However, with the growth in internet use, these guidelines now apply to disabled people who use computers and smart devices to access websites and apps.

  Besides, ADA is necessary to prevent possible discrimination against people with disabilities while providing accessibility guarantees equal opportunity to everyone, including those with physical limitations.

• 2. What are some examples of ADA-compliant websites?

  There are numerous examples of ADA compliance you can consider for an accessible design like:

  • Using contrasting colors for better visual effect, and improved web accessibility for those with visual disabilities or impairment
  • Ensuring users with motor disabilities can navigate web content with a keyboard and assistive technologies like screen readers
  • Letting users with visual impairments zoom text if required
  • Letting users pause, stop or hide content that starts automatically or lasts for longer than 5 seconds
  • Writing compelling, precise, and accurate page titles

• 3. What is ADA compliance in the workplace?

  ADA compliance at the workplace ensures workers with disabilities have access to the same benefits as employees without disabilities. The basic principles and strategies involved in ADA compliance include:

  • Avoiding making assumptions about disabilities as some disabilities, like cognitive and functional impairments, are unseen
  • Making reasonable accommodations to standard employment processes to provide equal access and opportunity experience to employees and applicants with disabilities
  • Keeping digital assets up to date
  • Maintaining standardized policies across the organization

• 4. What are the ADA requirements in Pennsylvania?

  The ADA requirements in Pennsylvania include having all public housing provide accessibility to those walking without handicaps. It also prohibits discrimination and requires that all existing facilities be changed to be accessible to people with fewer disabilities.

• 5. What does ADA compliance require?

  ADA compliance requires businesses, state and local governments, and employers to provide equal opportunity to people with disabilities. It includes providing accessible facilities and communication and ensuring all electronic information and technology, like websites, is accessible to users with disabilities.

  ADA compliance software can help ensure website compliance and involves using business tools to help businesses ensure their websites and physical locations comply with the ADA rules.

Conclusion

It is not a piece of cake to achieve ADA compliance on websites. Things can get challenging if your web design and development team is not updated with ADA compliance or does not have the time to ensure digital accessibility.

Unfortunately, no matter how busy or updated your team may be, ADA compliance is essential to prevent spending thousands of dollars in a lawsuit because of it.

This is where we at ADA Site Compliance can help make your site accessible. We are the #1 resource for repairing ADA website compliance issues, with our team of experienced web designers and developers to ensure web compliance.

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