What is ADA compliance?

ADA compliance refers to the Americans with Disabilities Act Standards for Accessible Design, which states that all web content must be accessible to people with disabilities. According to the Equality Act of 2010, having an inaccessible website for people with disabilities is breaking the law. ADA protects the rights of these individuals to have safe access to public spaces. The consequences of an ADA violation to businesses that do not provide accommodations as the law requires can be severe.

Lack of Compliance is Considered Discrimination

According to a study, 3.8 million people in the United States have visual impairments and may use a screen reader to consume text in the HTML code of web pages, to translate it into audible speech.

92% of the most popular federal websites fail to meet basic standards for accessibility, says a study from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. Not being able to navigate these websites means individuals with a disability cannot get the information they need or perform the tasks required to live their daily lives. And this hindrance is not just annoying, it’s also illegal.

What Are the Legal Aspects?

A lawsuit, for example, could be filed against your company if people with disabilities cannot access or use your site. Even if your business did not intend to discriminate or exclude people with disabilities from visiting or using your website, you could pay thousands of dollars in lawsuits.

In 2018, 1,500+ legal cases related to non-accessibility incompliance were filed in New York alone. This number of cases grew up to 10,000 by the end of 2019 and reached almost 100k by 2020.

For the first violation, Federal law allows a fine of up to $75,000 and $150,000 for additional ADA violations. States and local governments may allow added penalties and require businesses to meet a higher standard of accessibility than the ADA requires.

The law provides no time for a company to act before a lawsuit is filed, and it offers no real defense to a company after a lawsuit has been filed!

The Solution?

Achieving ADA compliance for your website can seem challenging. But having an accessible website is so crucial that Google gives it more relevance than one that isn’t accessible! By not having an accessible website for disabled people, you could be losing out on a ton of potential customers and more potential revenue. To achieve ADA compliance, the website should be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. But it can get very tedious to try and sort through each one of these items manually and making sure they are ADA compliant.