ADA Compliant Websites

ADA stands for the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on an individual’s disability. With over 50 million Americans currently living with a disability, the act seeks to ensure these citizens have access to “public and private places that are open to the general public.”

While in the past ADA largely focused on accessibility features in physical stores, offices and government buildings, in 2018 the act was expanded to include technology interfaces such as websites. As a result, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) is now the widely accepted standard for compliance with the ADA.

According to ADA.gov, if your business or organization’s website is found to be non-compliant, you could be subject to a fine of $75,000 – $150,000 each time you’re found in violation. Between 2017 and 2018, ADA compliant website lawsuits nearly tripled. According to a report by Usable Net, 21% of businesses targeted by an ADA lawsuit were sued more than once. Between government fines and lawsuits, websites that are not widely accessible to users are not only costly to your reputation, but also your bottom line.

Simply put, ADA compliance is about making your site accessible to all users. So if a visited has a sight implementation, the ADA compliance for that visitor may mean adding screen readers that read the pages text for a visitor, or to accommodate a hearing impaired visitor, it may mean adding closed captioning to videos. For website owners, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) serves as the gold standard for ADA compliance.