What is ADA Compliance?
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is one of America's most comprehensive pieces of civil rights legislation. Most people are familiar with the physical accommodations businesses make, such as automatic door openers and wheelchair ramps. But what a lot of people don’t know is that ADA applies to the Internet as well.
Under the law, websites should be just as accessible as ATMs, elevators, terminals and other user interfaces. Failing ADA compliance creates poor and awkward experiences for people with physical disabilities. For example, a hard of sight person would have trouble discerning some color contrast on the sight and miss out on crucial information or a hard of hearing person would not be able to gain important information from a video if there is no closed captioning or a script. Simply put, ADA compliance is assuring your website falls within a set of prescribed accessibility standards.
Learn more about ADA and 508 Compliance
Why should I care? Lawsuits, Lawsuits, Lawsuits.
The ADA is the reason America has things like disabled parking requirements, service counter height requirements, and wheelchair ramp mandates in building codes.
Title III of the ADA mandates that all “places of public accommodation” (all business open to the public) are legally required to remove any “access barriers” that would hinder a disabled person’s access to that business’s goods or services.
In 1990 while the internet was still in its infancy, ADA was enacted, “access barriers” was widely understood to mean literal, physical barriers, like stairs that would hinder a customer in a wheelchair from accessing a business, or a counter that was too high a customer in a wheel chair, for example.
However, in 2010, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) issued an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking indicating that they intended to amend the language in Title III of the ADA to ensure it would also apply to website accessibility.
The announcement declared the DOJ’s intention to:
“Establish requirements for making the goods, services, facilities, privileges, accommodations, or advantages offered by public accommodations via the Internet, specifically at sites on the World Wide Web (Web), accessible to individuals with disabilities.”
Since 2010, various courts have heard parts of the DOJ’s argument. Due the ambiguity of the wording, the results have been mixed.
Some courts have ruled that only websites with goods or services tied to a physical location, like a retailer that also sells its products in an online store, are considered “places of public accommodation” and would be covered by the ADA.
However, other courts have argued more broadly that any website offering goods or services online should be considered “places of public accommodation”, even if they don’t have a physical store presence.
A final ruling is expected to be announced sometime in 2018. This will set the official standard for website accessibility for businesses.
The ADA has been a point of litigious contention more than 240 businesses sued nationwide over website’s accessibility for blind users since 2015. In 2016 alone, ADA Title III Lawsuits increased by 37%. There have been more lawsuits filed for multiple disabilities for businesses big and small. For the most part, the defendants had to settle because the website is either compliant or it isn’t. With people realizing that websites must be compliant to ADA regulations, some people have been using this as a fast cash grab.
Contact us for ADA and 508 Compliance Audits
Recent Lawsuits
Recent lawsuits regarding ADA/508 Compliance on websites include Marett V. Five Guys Enterprises LLC, Del-Orden V. Bonobos, Inc., Carroll V. Roanoke Valley Community Credit Union and Andrews V. Blick Art Materials LLC. E.D.N.Y.
WCAG and ADA relations
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is a set of accessibility standards created by the World Wide Web Consortium in partnership with various other groups to help guide web content producers in making their work more accessible to all, including users with disabilities.
The U.S. government uses WCAG to determine ADA Title III website accessibility until they finish creating their own version of WCAG.
There are 3 levels of accessibility but to be ADA compliant, your business must hit the minimum of the first level and half of the requirements in the second level.
ACS Can Help You Get Your Website ADA Compliant
For today’s business owner, making sure you are compliant with every government regulation can be a time consuming and confusing hassle. With all the things going on with your business, it’s not hard for website compliance to slip through the cracks. ACS can help your website stay ADA compliant.
Our specialists have experience in every aspect of ADA or 508 compliance procedure, from audits to implementation. As your Internet marketing partner, we’ll work with you to develop your website to be compliant so you can focus on serving all your customers.
To receive a free, completely customized, no-obligation quote on a ADA/508 compliance package for your business, reach out to us by phone or online today. Our experts are waiting for your call!