When it comes to running a website, it is imperative that you make sure to optimize your website for persons with disabilities. Failing this, you may find yourself getting involved with a notably unpleasant ADA lawsuit which, let’s face it, you probably haven’t got time to be dealing with!
ADA lawsuits are a right pain for you to have to deal with. However, it is imperative that you take appropriate action to make sure that your website optimization plans are suitable to help negate the risks of these lawsuits—and, that aside, accessible websites are usually better received by visitors anyway.
The ADA, otherwise known by its official name of the Americans with Disabilities Act, was originally introduced in 1990. The law was then further updated nearly two decades later, with amendments being made in 2008 to modernize the law. The regulations are set out to make sure that opportunities are equally available for persons with disabilities as well as for non-disabled Americans.
The ADA covers five different titles: employment, state and local government, public accommodations, telecommunications, and miscellaneous provisions. As a website owner, the services that you will be providing will evidently fall under the “telecommunications” title (title IV) and so it is imperative that you make sure your website accessibility is well thought through for persons with disabilities.
Businesses that are dealing with an ADA lawsuit will get a warning letter sent to their address in advance. This warning letter will serve as notice of the ADA lawsuit. This letter will usually give you the chance to amend your website so that it is compliant with the ADA lawsuit; this is easily achieved by using our accessibility tools within minutes! This is incredibly important, as the time between receiving the warning letter and actually starting the lawsuit can vary from country to country; the US, for example, will have a different warning period of time than other countries.
A disability can cover a wide range of different conditions. The law classes a disability as being a condition—be it mental or physical in nature—which substantially limits a person’s life and activities.
ADA lawsuits can have a severe impact on your business. So, it is important to avoid them by implementing accessibility features to your website (our accessibility tools and accessibility checker can help you achieve this).
One of the biggest problems associated with an ADA lawsuit is the large amount of time and money involved in order to deal with it. It is vital, of course, that you hire a skilled ADA lawyer to help you combat the lawsuit. Furthermore, the lawsuit itself will take up a lot of your own, or your workers’, time which can clearly be problematic.
However, there is another important consequence of ADA lawsuits that you should consider. This is the impact on your business and its reputation among its customers. Reputation is important to protect, but if your customers learn that your website is undergoing an ADA lawsuit, you will likely lose a lot of support and customers/viewers.
As a website owner, it is imperative that you make sure your website optimization is conducted in such a way as to promote the accessibility of the website. For some website owners, this can seem like a hard goal to achieve without compromising on other factors such as site speed optimization. However, in order to avoid ADA lawsuits, it is imperative that you take the concepts of website optimization into account. Our range of accessibility tools and our accessibility checker can help you in this goal.
