ADA Website Compliance

Back in 2017 the Wynn-Dixie food chain was sued for $100,000 and lost in a suit that alleged their website was not accessible to sight-impaired visitors and therefore non-Americans with Disabilities Act compliant.

Since then, many law firms have hopped on the bandwagon and thousands of ADA lawsuits have been brought forth against companies with websites inaccessible to visitors who are sight or hearing disabled and who use alternatives browsers, including audio text to voice and voice-navigated browsers for the blind.

Many of these lawsuits have been settled out of court for anywhere between $10,000 to $20,000. Recently, these lawsuits have focused especially on the websites of galleries and dealers of fine art. In response to this, we have started to reach out to and inform businesses that have websites that are not ADA compliant to offering our expertise and services to bring them up to the legal standard of accessibility for all people.

We are doing so at a heavily discounted rate as we think it is important work that must be done. Please get in touch with us if you would be interested in pursuing this for your own site. We would happily offer you a free audit to let you know if your site is ADA compliant.

What is the ADA compliance?

The Department of Justice (DOJ) published the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Standards for Accessible Design in September 2010. These standards state that all electronic and information technology must be accessible to people with disabilities.

Is ADA compliance mandatory?

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a civil rights law passed in 1990 established protections for people with disabilities. … There is a common misconception that some buildings have been “grandfathered”, and are not required to comply with ADA; but ADA does not protect buildings built before passage of the Act.

What does ADA compliant mean for websites?

This means that your website needs to be accessible to people who have disabilities that affect their hearing, vision or physical capacities. Recently, a ruling has been passed declaring the official standard of website accessibility for businesses.

What are the ADA regulations?

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) became law in 1990. The ADA is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life, including jobs, schools, transportation, and all public and private places that are open to the general public.

Do all business have to be ADA compliant?

Does Your Small Business Need to be ADA Compliant? The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires businesses to make “reasonable accommodations” for people with qualified disabilities, but only if those businesses fit certain guidelines.

Guidelines for ADA Website Compliance

Enabling access to Web content for all users is the concern of the Web accessibility movement, which strives to create accessible websites via conformance to certain design principles. For example, screen readers are of limited use when reading text from websites designed without consideration to accessibility. Sometimes these limitations are due to the differences between spoken and written language and the complexity of the text, but it is often caused by poor page design practices. The tendency to indicate semantic meaning using methods that are purely presentational (e.g. larger or smaller font sizes, using different font colors, embedded images, or multimedia to provide information) restricts meaningful access to some users. Therefore, designing sites in accordance with Web accessibility principles helps enable meaningful access for all users:

• Provide equivalent alternatives to auditory and visual content
• Don’t rely on color alone
• Use markup and style sheets, and do so properly
• Clarify natural language usage
• Create tables that transform gracefully
• Ensure that pages featuring new technologies transform gracefully
• Ensure user control of time sensitive content changes
• Ensure direct accessibility of embedded user interfaces
• Design for device independence
• Use W3C technologies and guidelines
• Provide context and orientation information
• Provide clear navigation mechanisms
• Ensure that documents are clear and simple
• Provide text alternatives for any non-text content so that it can be changed into other forms people need, such as large print, braille, speech, symbols or simpler language.
• Create content that can be presented in different ways (for example simpler layout) without losing information or structure.
• Make it easier for users to see and hear content including separating foreground from background.
• Make all functionality available from a keyboard.
• Provide users enough time to read and use content.
• Do not design content in a way that is known to cause seizures.
• Provide ways to help users navigate, find content, and determine where they are.
• Make text content readable and understandable.
• Make web pages appear and operate in predictable ways.
• Help users avoid and correct mistakes.
• Maximize compatibility with current and future user agents, including assistive technologies.