Your Client's Website Could Be At Risk Of A Lawsuit!😲
(Solution Below)
📢 Attention 📢
Web Developers and Website Designers.
I received a phone call from a fellow who I'm going to call David. That is not his real name. That's just how I'm going to identify him for purposes of this article. After he introduced himself and told me how he found me. He said today you have been served noticed. That we are being sued in federal court for non-compliance to ADA website regulations!
Any day that you are sued in federal court is just not a good day, poor man, so we spent a couple of hours. We were able to engage his lawyer and the developer for his website and one of the things that kept jumping out at me. As we were talking through the first little bit of our time together. He said I had no idea about this. Why didn't anyone tell me? I wish more people were talking about this.
He actually encouraged me to make a article about this and the longer I got into thinking about this. The more I realized I wanted to break it up into digestible pieces. So the goal of this article is to break down what ADA website compliance is. Who it applies to. What you can do to make sure your site is compliant and what to do if you get sued.
So what is ADA as it applies to websites?
Let's start at the very beginning.
ADA website compliance is part of the Americas with Disabilities Act specifically section 508. If you're in the business side of things. I wouldn't necessarily worry about understanding all of the intricacies of that. That's more of a technical function.
But the web accessibility content guidelines 2.0. Are what is covered in section 508 of the Americans with Disabilities Act. In a nutshell, this is what it says.
It says that your website is a place of public space.
It is a public space, the same as a brick and mortar location and as a business.
It has to be accessible to folks with disabilities.
So it is the same as having a wheelchair ramp that allows folks into your business. If your website is not accessible to folks with disability. You are denying them entry.
Now, what does accessible mean?
There's tons of meanings when it comes to websites. The guidelines are huge! And again that's more of a technical piece. Like I said, I'm going to try to keep this high level. So not a lot of technical details.
It applies to things like:
The ability for screen readers to access it.
The ability to adjust the resolution and the contrast for people with visual disabilities.
It allows everyone, regardless of ability, level, to see your website and interact with it in the way that you intended when you designed it
So the overall result of ADA compliance is actually A really good thing. It's going to open your business up to a ton of customers. That it's currently inaccessible to, because they can't use it.
So that, in a nutshell, is what ADA compliance is.
You want to get the same level of accessibility across the board. So that every customer who wants to come to your website has the ability. To come there, use it and have a similar user experience.
Okay, so are there industries that are more likely to be targeted for ADA compliance lawsuits?
Yes, this is very true. The industries that are most likely to be targeted are hospitality. So things like hotels, resorts as well as food and beverage. Live events, any kind of ticketing system that you might have. E-commerce, basically anywhere. Where the sole purpose of your website. Is to allow customers to complete an action.
So, there's a lot of misinformation about out there.
I see lots of comments that say: Oh this only applies to government websites. That is absolutely not true.
It applies to everyone. Like every other form of compliance. Just like your PCI compliance. So that you can take credit card transactions. Like your GDPR compliance, so that you can collect data on people in the European union.
It is best to assume that this compliance requirem
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