As the internet becomes a huge part of our everyday lives, website accessibility is fast becoming a growing concern for businesses and users. A lot of lawsuits and litigations have been filed against businesses without accessible websites by many advocates and disabled users in an effort to use the web equally with everyone. There are high profile accessibility lawsuits every business, large or small should learn from.
Website Accessibility Guidelines
The World Wide Web consortium created the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), the widely-accepted standards on web accessibility around the world. WCAG has three levels of compliance; A, AA, & AAA. The WCAG AA compliance is the acceptable accessibility for legal purposes.
Also, Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 mandates that Government agencies (federal, state and local) and organizations receiving federal funding have to be accessible, and the WCAG AA is the standard of compliance.
The Americans with Disabilities Act
The ADA is another rule that mandates accessibility. Although it is somewhat unclear, the ADA Title III mandates that businesses must make their physical locations accessible to everyone including people with disabilities. However, the law was made before the internet became wide-spread, so it didn't take that into account. This created a grey area that has resulted in many lawsuits. These lawsuits informed the outcomes of subsequent ones and have shaped web accessibility in recent times.
How Do You Respond to a Demand Letter on Web Accessibility?
If you get served a demand letter on web accessibility, don't hit the panic button just yet. The first step is to be calm. Here are some steps you can take:
Get outside help - Hire an expert fully engaged in accessibility and ADA compliance. Although demand letters put you on notice, they also give you the needed time to prepare your position and defence for any legal action. A legal counsel will normally look to extend and delay the process by requesting for detailed justification and clarification of the claim. This time will allow you and your team to get in a better position to negotiate and prepare for future defence.
Put your plan in place - You already got the demand letter, the next step is to take stock of what plan you have in place, where you are and where you'll need additional effort. This will help you come up with an internal plan, which will be considered your accessibility policy. If you're not equipped with any in-house resources to put out the plan, hiring an accessibility consultant can be the right step to guide you through the process.
Communicate internally and externally - With the plan in place, you'll need to communicate them internally, and externally by putting up an accessibility statement on your digital channels to show your visitors that your business is committed to accessibility and being inclusive.
Run accessibility tests - Running an accessibility test of your site will help you detect issues, and there are a lot of accessibility tools that make use of AI to test and scan for WCAG and ADA issues.
Full 3rd-party audit - After testing your website for ADA compliance, a full site audit is useful with a user or an expert. Getting user testing from members of the disabled community, using an assistive device like the screen reader, will shed light will light on issues missed during the test
Fix your website - Once you’re clear on what the problems are, it's time to fix those issues. Fixing might require a set of resources like development, UX, QA testing, content update etc. This is a process that will take the most coordination and internal effort.
Confirm the fixes - It isn’t enough to just fix your digital platform. You need to go on to confirm that the fix actually solved the issue. The best way is to go about another user testing process, and get members from the disabled community to test out your website with their assistive devices.
Maintain and monitor - A lot of people feel that web accessibility is won and done, but not quite. You need to constantly check for updates to the WCAG, and also change your business’ approach to building digital platforms. Whenever you update your website features or functionality, add accessibility to that list.
Why Wait for a Demand Letter, Prevent it
Ideally, you wont get a demand letter by staying ahead of the pack when it comes to ADA compliance. Here are a few ways you can prevent the stress and unnecessary expenses on settlements.
Audit your site - One important way to prevent an ADA lawsuit is to audit your website. This will easily show you issues with accessibility, where your website is lacking, and what you need to get it on track. It may be issues with the alt-tag of images on your site or that assistive devices can't read PDFs on your site.
Educate yourself - Ever heard of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)? It’s the international standard and guidelines to make sure that every site is accessible and compliant. An important first step is to know the basics to help you understand issues around accessibility.
Make and keep up with changes - Get your website up to date with the appropriate changes after an audit. Then you have to understand that the guidelines and laws around web accessibility; the ADA Title III and WCAG can change. Keep up with those changes and make sure your digital platform is always up to date.
Bottom Line
Getting sued is one of the biggest fears of every business. If your website is not ADA compliant, it can quickly become a reality. If, however, you find yourself an ADA lawsuit target, it’s crucial to stay calm and seek help. If you’re not yet a target, take necessary steps to prevent a lawsuit.