What would happen if one of your clients got sued because their website wasn’t accessible to those with disabilities or they weren’t ADA compliant? Would they then turn around and sue you for not providing the comprehensive accessibility services needed?

Is it your responsibility as an agency to make sure that your clients’ virtual properties meet ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) requirements? Virtually all websites (98.1%) are not currently compliant, but if a company does not become compliant, they risk demand letters or being sued by consumers which can cost them tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars and damage their reputation.

Can Your Client Get Sued for Not Having an ADA Compliant Web Site?

The short answer to this question is yes. 

Although it’s impossible to say how many demand letters have been sent out regarding accessibility issues and how many private settlements have been made, we can say that there were 10,982 filed in federal court in 2020. 

Penalties for violations can be considerable. They typically fall between $55,000 and $75,000 for a first offense and can be as high as $150,000 or more for a second offense. 

In the most recent DOJ (Department of Justice) affirmation, all business-related websites are now considered places of public accommodations and must be accessible for people with disabilities.

Most businesses fall under the Title III of the ADA. This prohibits disability discrimination in places of public accommodations, commercial facilities and private entities that offer courses that pertain to educational and occupational certification. 

Based on the way the ADA is written, not having an accessible website is active discrimination and it can get you sued. 

Web accessibility means that websites are designed and developed so that people with disabilities can use them. More specifically, people can: perceive, understand, navigate and interact with the Web. 

The ADA is what’s known as a ‘no fault state.’ That means that you can’t claim innocence because you weren’t aware of the laws. Therefore, your client’s business Is considered to have broken the law regardless of what information you may or may not have been privy to. 

Fortunately, there is guidance that companies can use to become compliant. This comes in the form of WCAG. 

What is the WCAG and How Does it Affect Your Clients?

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) play an important role in ADA compliance. The World Wide Web’s Consortium or (WC3) is an international organization that is known for providing clear criteria for the web’s best practices. WCAG documents explain how web content can be made more accessible for people with disabilities. 

WCAG 2.2 recommendations are expected soon.

There is a total of 78 WCAG 2.1 success criteria (not including conformance criteria).

WCAG 2.1 categorize accessibility issues into three levels as follows:

• Level A: This level pertains to urgent problems that limit a disabled person’s ability to use the website. 
• Level AA: This level is assigned to sites with areas that can be improved to provide a disabled person with a better user experience. 
• Level AAA: Reaching Level AAA involves fine tuning to improve accessibility issues. It is unachievable for most websites. 

Accessibility issues are further broken down by the WCAG into four groups that go by the acronym P.O.U.R. These include:

• Perceivable: Perceivable issues reduce the person’s ability to find and process information on the website. An example would be videos without subtitles for the hearing impaired. 
• Operable: Operable issues impact the user’s ability to navigate and use the site. These can include a site that can only function via keyboard commands that are not integrated into the tools made for disabled persons. 
• Understandable: This pertains to issues the user may have in understanding the information on the web page and how the site operates. To comply, the web site should have readable and understandable text content, web pages that appear and operate according to the norm, and it should provide assistance so users can avoid and correct mistakes.
• Robust: The site should be robust so that it can be interpreted by a variety of users including disabled individuals. 

What Types of Industries Should Be ADA Compliant?

ADA compliance is required for any company that fits one or more of the following criteria:

• All government agencies
• Any company that benefits from the patronization of the general public
• Privately run companies with 15 employees or more
• Nonprofit organizations that have 15 or more employees or that operate for the general public’s benefit

Here are a few example industries where it is important to have a website that is accessible to everyone:

• Ecommerce 
• Consumer brands
• Banks & financial institutions
• Hotels
• Restaurants
• Grocery stores
• Schools
• Gyms
• Car dealerships
• Dentistry
• Plastic Surgery 
• Healthcare and medical clinics

Why Would Your Agency Want to Offer Accessibility Services? 

ADA compliance offers several benefits that are desirable for your client’s business. A few include: 

When your client becomes ADA compliant, it shows that they care about all their customers, including those who have disabilities. Being inclusive is more important than ever before and this holds true for all companies and brands. 

Making your client’s website fully ADA compliant can put them ahead of the competition. Many other companies and brands are not up to date with ADA compliance laws, so they can have an edge by being ahead of the curve. 

If your client is not ADA compliant, they are limiting their potential customers. 61 million people (1 in 4 US adults, 26% of adults and 2 in 5 adults age 65+) have disabilities that could impact their ability to use your client’s website. 

Many features that make sites ADA compliant also help make them easier for search engines to understand (SEO). This means that if your clients become compliant, their website will rank higher in search engine results pages, which could lead to more web traffic. 

There is a lot of money to be made by helping companies make their websites accessible to everyone. Almost all of the world’s top one million websites are not accessible to people with disabilities, so there is a lot of room for growth in this market. A major study found that less than 2% of all websites offer a fully accessible experience. This market is growing, so there is big potential for agencies to increase their revenue by providing this service. 

Should Your Agency Do the Work In-House or Outsource to a Strategic Partner?

It can be a difficult decision to know whether you should outsource the accessibility work to a strategic partner or do it in-house. 

Outsourcing the work can seem risky because you are giving away control of the work and you might not be confident that the partner will do a good job. Your agency is responsible for the work that is done and the outsourced partner will be behind the scenes and not known by your customers.

But there are also risks to doing in-house work. You might not have enough bandwidth to take on extra work, you might not want to hire a full-time accessibility developer (who can cost up to $130K according to ZipRecruiter), you might not have the right skillset in your team, or you might not have the time or money to invest in needed training. 

If you want to make your website truly and fully accessible to people with disabilities, it can be a good idea to team up with an ADA & WCAG compliance partner. But you need to make sure you partner with the right company. Here are some things you should look for when choosing a partner. 

There are two main types of testing for ADA & WCAG compliance: automated and manual. Unfortunately, automated testing only finds about 35% of the issues. To find all the issues, manual testing is needed for the other 65%. In addition to finding issues, the company should also be able to do remediation (fix the issues). 

Make sure that the manual remediations are done by someone who knows how to make websites accessible. Most front-end and back-end developers do not know how to make websites accessible according to WCAG 2.1 guidelines. 

A good ADA & WCAG strategic partner should help with education about accessibility and compliance issues. This will help ensure that your clients are aware of any potential problems that could arise. 

Make sure your partner has a white-label program set up. This means they have policies and procedures in place to meet all milestones and deliverables.

Everyone likes a good deal, but if the company you partner with offers a suspiciously low price, they may not be able to provide the comprehensive services you need. It’s best to partner with a group of certified experts who have the background expertise and specialize in web accessibility. 

Make sure to avoid partnering with an overlay product that charges a low monthly fee. No overlay product can make a website fully accessible, much less conformant to major industry standards. While some overlay products can fix some accessibility issues, the extent of those fixes are small. Additionally, the “widgets” provided by overlays are often a poorly executed attempt at replicating capabilities that already exist in the features of the user’s browser and/ or operating system settings.

A Hybrid Model: Your Agency Works with Your Accessibility Partner 

The goal is to have your client’s website comply with accessibility guidelines so that everyone, including those with disabilities, can use it. Your accessibility partner should be able to work with your agency to make sure your client’s website meets all the requirements. This could mean filling in any gaps where your agency does not have the expertise or desire to fulfill. These could include automated and/or manual auditing of the website, remediation (Fixing the issues), ongoing monthly and quarterly monitoring and maintenance, or having upfront and/or continuing education training with your agency.

The WCAG 2.2 recommendations are expected soon, so this partnership could also include education on these new recommendations.

Providing ADA & WCAG compliant services will set your agency apart, boost customer satisfaction and prevent your clients from incurring expensive lawsuits. 

About inclusve 

inclusve is an Austin, TX based web accessibility company with a mission for digital equality for everyone, including those with disabilities. We do this by ensuring websites and mobile apps are fully accessible, so that all users can enjoy an equal experience. 

inclusve offers accessibility, white-label solutions so that agencies can offer true accessibility and compliance programs to their clients. This includes automated and manual WCAG audits, remediation (fixes), VPAT Certification, monthly monitoring and maintenance and training and education.

Our mission: inclusve for everyone! https://inclusve.com/