ADA website accessibility compliance is more than just a tool for your website. It is a requirement that you need to adhere to in order to keep your website accessible to all users. This leads many people to wonder can your websites be sued for ADA compliance? It is a common question by business owners and managers who are just becoming aware of the issue.
The goal of ADA compliance is to ensure equal access to services and a user-friendly experience for disabled people. So, by making your website ADA compliant, you do not discriminate against differently abled people. However, there is more to ADA compliance than we know. It is an obligatory requirement for websites to follow according to the Supreme Court decision.
Can Websites Be Sued For ADA Compliance?
The short answer is, yes, your websites can be sued for ADA compliance. Making your website ADA accessible is now a part of complying with the law. If you do not develop your websites to be ADA accessible, then you are not obeying the law. In that case, your website or organization could face an ADA lawsuit.
The Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in 1989. This act deals with several provisions and different types of accessibility issues to support disabled people. According to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act,all websites of federal agencies have to be ADA accessible. This includes a large majority of firms and organizations being ADA compliant.
Additionally, the 2019 Supreme Court decision states that ADA compliance is mandatory for a firm’s websites. So, if a company, firm, or organization does not have an ADA accessible website, they are defying the Supreme Court. This can result in penalties or even lawsuits. In summary, yes, your websites can be sued for ADA compliance.
A prominent example of this event is the case of Robles vs. Domino’s Pizza. The fast-food chain did not have an ADA-accessible website. So, a screen reader couldn’t place an order on the website. Hence, Domino’s Pizza was sued by a blind plaintiff. They were ordered by the court to pay $4,000 as well as all legal fees incurred by the plaintiff.
So, this case shows us that without ADA compliance, your websitecan become a threat to your company. Whereas, websites are an asset to the organization that can help bring in new customers and increase profitability. Without being ADA compliant, your organization will fail to fulfill this. Instead, you will be under the threat of an ADA lawsuit.
What Can You Do To Prevent ADA Lawsuit?
The first step to preventing ADA lawsuits from happening is to make sure that your website is ADA accessible. Ensuring web ADA accessibility will mitigate your risks of getting an ADA lawsuit. Additionally, it will also improve your website’s user experience and generate better profitability.
There are multiple steps that you can follow to make your website ADA compliant. Make sure to go through the ADA accessibility checklist to ensure that you are following all of them. You need to get the necessary awareness and education first. In that way, you can understand the requirements, advantages, and obligations of ADA compliance.
ADA compliance for your website can be done in multiple ways. Using alt text is a part of making your website ADA compliant. Alt text, or alternative text, conveys the message of an image to the screen reader. It is especially important for users who are using assistive devices to use the website.
Providing video transcripts can be a great addition. Similar to alt texts, it helps screen readers go through the contents of an audio or a video. Not only that, but all users can navigate through it and understand it better with video transcripts. Correct use of fonts, headlines, sub-points, color contrasts, ARIA landmarks, etc. is an important part of ADA accessibility.
So, make sure to follow the ADA accessibility guidelines and checklists to make your website ADA compliant. Similarly, you can also get the expertise of different firms that provide auditing, testing, and ensure ADA accessibility on your websites.
Conclusion
ADA accessibility is a necessity for your websites. You can ensure a better service and user experience on your websites by following the ADA compliance guidelines. Thus, you will be able to provide the best services to all customers.
Contact us to learn more about ADA website accessibility.
