August 5, 2024

Don't Have an Accessible Website?
You Could Be in Danger of a Lawsuit

Imagine losing your eyesight or

not having the use of your hands.

Now imagine not being able to access the Internet.

If you own a business, you need an

accessible website.

This includes your emails and videos.

An accessible website is…

the first civil rights law for people with disabilities effective July 26, 1990.
compliant with the requirements established by the Department of Justice (DOJ) under Title III of the 2010 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Standards for Accesssible Design.
within the parameters of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) “fostering a consistent architecture accommodating the rapid pace of progress in web standards…” ¹
compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) which provided “… a single, shared [technical] standard for web content accessibility that meets the needs of individuals, organizations, and governments internationally.” ²

These guidelines have three levels of accessibility:

A, AA, and AAA with A being the lowest.

The W3C has undergone three revisions since its release in 1999.

2.0, 2.1, and 2.2, with version 3.0 forthcoming.

“Since 1996, the DOJ has consistently taken the position that the ADA applies to web content.” ³

Yet Program Manager for the Northeast ADA, Joe Zesski, stated in an email (2023) that no official regulations from the DOJ have detailed how to make a website accessible.

You Could Face a Lawsuit
If Your Website is Not ADA Compliant

While Titles II and III do not outwardly state that the ADA applies to web content, this has not stopped the DOJ from exercising its authority in the following Title III cases:

Rite Aid Corporation: The Department reached an agreement with Rite Aid Corporation to address accessibility barriers in Rite Aid’s COVID-19 Vaccine Registration Portal.
Teachers Test Prep, Inc.: The Department reached an agreement with Teachers Test Prep, Inc., regarding complaints that the test prep company’s online video courses did not provide captions and were inaccessible to people who are deaf.
HRB Digital and HRB Tax Group (H&R Block): The Department reached an agreement with H&R Block to address claims that the company failed to code its website so that individuals with disabilities could use assistive technology such as screen reader software, refreshable Braille displays, keyboard navigation, and captioning.
Peapod: The Department reached an agreement with Peapod to address claims that its online grocery delivery services were not accessible to some individuals with disabilities.
Barnes & Noble
Blue Apron
Sweetgreen
Kitchen Aid
Panama Jack
Fox News Network
Winn-Dixie
Domino’s Pizza

* Collectively⁷

Examples of Accessibility Issues

Motor Impairments
- Muscular Dystrophy
Neurological Disorders
- Parkinson’s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, and Cerebral Palsy
Developmental Motor Disorders
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Visual Impairments
- Nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism, color blindness, Presbyopia (age-related difficulty in reading or seeing at close range), Cataracts, Macular Degeneration (damage to the central portion of the retina) Glaucoma, (damage to the optic nerve), and Diabetic Retinopathy (retinal damage due to complications from diabetes).

Examples of Assistive Technology

Screen-Reading Tools
- JAWS
- NVDA

Modified keyboards
Braille displays
Voice-recognition software
Magnifiers
Head pointers
Mouth sticks
Eye-tracking devices
Adaptive keyboards
Customizable User Interfaces

How to Create an Accessible Website

You can create an accessible website by:

contacting accessiBe
following the ADA guidelines ⁵
enrolling in courses shown in the footer
using the Web Accessibility Versatile Evaluator (WAVE) ⁶

On March 16, 2000, Leonard Kasday, Universal Design Engineer at the Institute on Disabilities at Temple

University in Utah, announced the WAVE “… a beta version of a new tool to help evaluate accessibility of

websites…” ⁵

In 2002, WebAIM, a non-profit organization whose mission is “to expand the potential of the web for people with disabilities” acquired Kasday’s WAVE tool.

WebAIM resides within the Institute for Disability Research, Policy & Practice at Utah State University. The IDRPP is one of the largest of the 67 University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, Education, Research, and Service throughout the U.S.
WebAIM collaborates closely with The Center for Technical Assistance for Excellence in Special Education and The National Center on Disability and Access to Education. (NCDAE)
If you would like to support WebAIM’s efforts, you may donate here. Under ‘Gift Instructions’, indicate that the gift is for WebAIM.

I reached out to Jared Smith, Director of WebAIM, (2024) to get some history on the WAVE tool.

It was originally written as a server-side tool in Java. We migrated to Java Server Pages in 2002-2003. It was written again to JavaScript and PHP [pre-html programming] with significant rules, updates, and improved functionality around 2006 with the Firefox browser extension being launched sometime around 2007. It’s development and refinement continue.

Acessible Website Software - accessiBe

Fast forward to 2016 when the Software as a Service (saaS) company, accessiBe, began researching accessibility solutions for their software.

They originally catered mostly to corporations, but they discovered that the “vast majority of businesses are small businesses (99% in U.S.)” and wanted to provide them with a solution that was financially and technologically feasible.
In 2018, accessiBe launched their solution – an AI-powered Accessibility Suite for WCAG & ADA Compliance:
accessWidget
accessScan
accessFlow

You can find a compilation of various articles from accessiBe on how the accessWidget benefits website owners and their visitors in this Word document.

For instance, in a recent chat with Lauren Adel (5-24-2024) from accessiBe, turning on the screen-reader profile from your accessWidget will allow visitors [with disabilities] to use the tab and enter keys in conjunction with their screen readers software such as JAWS and Voiceover. This will permit visitors to access buttons, drop downs, menus, etc. on the site.

In addition to their AI-Powered Accessibility Suite, Josue Polanco with accessiBe (5-31-24) says that they too use the WAVE tool when “creating a litigation support package for a client.”

In fact, …

LEGAL ACTIONS ARE ON THE RISE

The number of lawsuits filed in 2023 increased by nearly 42% compared to 2022. ⁴
The legislative landscape has changed in recent years, seeing a significant rise in web accessibility demand letters and lawsuits.
4,605 lawsuits were filed
Approximately 100,000 businesses received demand letters
The average lawsuit settlement $35,000.

According to Patience Saporito with accessiBe, (6-24-2024) businesses are not yet expected to be compliant with the latest version of the WCAG – 2.2 Level AAA because “companies are still in the process of making the necessary adjustments and may continue to conform to WCAG 2.1 AA.”

Download this PDF version of accessiBe’s comprehensive ADA website compliance checklist.

If you or someone you know has disabilities and is having difficulty navigating a website, you may file a complaint here.