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How to Protect Your Business from Web Accessibility Lawsuits in 2022

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Nachum Langsner
How to Protect Your Business from Web Accessibility Lawsuits in 2022

What makes a great website?

Marketers will agree that a website has to be user-friendly, clean, and attractive to anybody that sees it. That's all well and good, but there's a crucial, often forgotten component that landed renowned songbird Beyonce in trouble with web accessibility lawsuits.

Her website, Beyonce.com, was not accommodative to persons with visual impairment, making it inaccessible to over 2 million people in America living with these conditions. But there are thousands of other websites contravening the ADA law meant to make public places accommodative to all.

30 years after the law's inception, 98% of websites are still not compliant. There have been thousands of web accessibility lawsuits since then and more will keep coming up if businesses with at least 15 or more workers, including government organizations, fail to keep up with ADA's guidelines.

Wondering how to make your website ADA compliant? We have 10 cost-effective ways to help you with that. Keep reading to find out.

Who is at Risk of an ADA Lawsuit?         

The government considers websites as places of public accommodation. That's why you need to make them accessible in line with Title 111 of the Americans with Disability Act.

According to the ADA website accessibility law, if you have a physical store, your website is considered an online extension, which places you squarely under the category of businesses that may attract website accessibility lawsuits. The Ruderman Foundation is pushing for all websites to be ADA compliant by 2025.

The types of disability covered by this law include those to do with sight, such as blindness or color blindness, movement impairments, for example, muscle movement and sensory control, cognitive problems including speech, language, and learning impediments, and attention disorders.

Industries that May Attract Web Accessibility Lawsuits Faster than Others

Although all industries need to comply with these directives, some types of businesses have a higher likelihood of attracting web accessibility lawsuits. There have been thousands so far and counting.

The healthcare industry, e-commerce, education, and finance have been in the spotlight over these lawsuits. Because of the nature of their services, they're held to higher standards of accommodating everyone. The problem in all these scenarios is usually related to websites without screen readers or those with screen readers that do not accurately represent website content to users.

For example, it would be unfortunate if a person living with a disability couldn't access services on a website because they can't see info or hear it correctly. For e-commerce businesses selling fast-moving consumer goods, it seems outrageous for a person living with a disability to sleep hungry because they couldn't order what they wanted.

The finance sector is also sensitive, with renowned firms like Charles Schwab and HSBC involved in web accessibility lawsuits. People living with a disability may end up paying fines for late payments because they couldn't pay a credit card bill or read a statement online. For education, website inaccessibility problems can result in the inability to register for important exams, to miss out on class content.

How to Ensure You're ADA Compliant

There are many easy ways to prevent web accessibility lawsuits. Here are a few easy ways.

user-experience-meter-with-arrow-in-green-excellent-range88% of people leave a website over poor UX.

1. Upgrade your Website to an Inclusive UX

The first step in avoiding ADA trouble is to examine your website, noting all the areas that complicate UX. Start by putting yourself in the shoes of a hearing or visually impaired user. Is it easy to find what you're looking for? How much time does it take to decipher images or video content?

Treating every form of feedback is important. Check out ways that keep improving your website to make it inclusive. There is no one-time improvement. As technology improves, so do the opportunities to simplify work

2. Use More Text

The web is full of reasons why you should write less and use more visuals. It's okay to use visuals, but you're shutting out 4.6% of prospects in the US alone.

Typically, visually impaired web visitors use screen reading aids to buy things and engage with businesses. If you sacrificed a detailed explanation of an item for an image, these people have a hard time assessing the specs of the item. Screen reading tools are designed to pick up a text and read it out.

Besides, introducing text doesn't imply that you'll do away with engaging visuals. Make use of an alt tribute to help explain what a photo is trying to communicate. Should you use a sophisticated photo, include a caption describing what's happening.

Include larger buttons and customizable text. Consider customizing space, font size, and color so that people with disabilities can change them to what's comfortable.

3. Transcribe Your Videos

Since you'll likely have videos on your site, how about transcribing the content to accommodate more persons living with disabilities? People living with hearing impairment make up 5.9% of America's population.

Writing out the video content makes it accessible to this demographic. Because 88% of people leave a website over poor UX, you'll be saving your business from losing business before it even starts.

Add closed captions to your videos to communicate to prospects with hearing impairments and inspire them to interact with your platform more.

There's evidence that only 15% of video viewers on Facebook listen to the audio. They depend on the text running under it to understand the words spoken in the video. By transcribing, you're not only engaging the hearing impaired but also those who choose to skip audio on online videos.

4. Track ADA Compliance

The Local Biz Guru ADA compliance tool helps you check for compliance using comprehensive AI. Free tools such as Wave and Lighthouse and other tools found on the W3C will examine your website's colors, font sizes, image alt text, etc. You'll also find software dedicated to specific issues like image, color, etc.

You can also conduct an audit manually. This involves checking each of your pages for accessibility using WCAG, which is what ADA compliance is based on. Ideally, your pages should be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.

Get Local Biz Guru Compliance Solutions

Want to increase your business rankings online and become ADA compliant? We've helped hundreds of businesses like yours do just that. Contact us today for our ADA compliance solutions.  

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Nachum Langsner
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