What if Your Website Is Not ADA Compliant?

If your website is not ADA accessible, YOU are liable. A lawsuit could be easily filed against your business if users with disabilities cannot open or use your website. Even if your business did not intend to exclude or discriminate against individuals with disabilities, you could pay thousands of dollars in lawsuits.

Web accessibility lawsuits have seen a 320% increase in less than a decade. Roughly 40,000 demand letters against non-compliant sites were filed in 2018, and 2019 peaked with more than 10,000 lawsuits and 100,000 demand letters. The numbers continue to rise, with at least 11,452 federal filings documented in 2021.

Web accessibility matters more than ever. Having an ADA and WCAG compliant site might seem like a daunting task. Fortunately, PrimeView can make it easier by providing the ADA compliance services your company needs.

What Are ADA and WCAG?

Understanding the differences between WCAG and ADA begins with learning the basics.

What Is ADA Compliance?

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law on July 26, 1990. In September 2010, the Department of Justice (DOJ) followed up with the publishing of the ADA Standards for Accessible Design, which prohibits discrimination against anyone based on disability or ability.

Specifically, the ADA Standards for Accessible Design declares that all electronic and information technology, which includes websites, must be accommodating and accessible to all users on all devices, regardless of the mental or physical ability of the user. Web accessibility simply means your website is designed in a way that people with disabilities can use it without experiencing issues or stress.

What Is the WCAG Standard?

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is the international benchmark for website accessibility. Developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), following the WCAG guidelines ensures your website is accessible to the widest possible audience.

The purpose of the WCAG standard is to specify how to make web content more accessible to individuals with disabilities. Accessibility involves a range of afflictions, including physical, cognitive, learning, visual, auditory, speech, language, and neurological conditions. While these guidelines address various disability issues, they cannot fulfill the needs of people with all forms, degrees, and combinations of disabilities. The WCAG guidelines also make web content more accessible and comprehensible to older people with changing abilities due to aging, as well as improve general usability for all users.

ADA Compliant Website Checklist

WCAG covers four major guidelines that offer a universal standard for web content accessibility, intending to
meet individual, business, and government needs. These core principles summarize the parameters
facilitating the development of an ADA compliant website:

Perceivable:

Site visitors must be able to discern your content using one or more of their senses, including allowing visually-impaired individuals to browse and read through your online content.

Understandable:

ADA compliant websites accommodate people with various learning capabilities and disabilities. Visitors must be able to process your information and understand how to use your website regardless of their cognitive ability.

Operable:

Your website should be easy to navigate and has a user-friendly interface. For one, ensure your website offers keyboard accessibility to help motor-impaired individuals use site elements and access content with a click of a button.

Robust:

Users should receive the same experience, even if using assistive technologies. For example, people listening to your video’s audio versus those relying on subtitles should get the same content even if the delivery is different.

Along with meeting the WCAG checklist, you also need to conform to one of the three levels required for
certification: AAA is the highest, AA is mid-range, and A is the lowest. Your level determines your degree of
compliance, which would depend on your audience. For instance, if your website offers information, products, or
services that would attract a significant number of visitors who might benefit from enhanced web accessibility levels,
aiming for at least level AA success criteria is ideal.

Equitable access for all!

PrimeView has been operating as a full service Digital Marketing and Web Design firm for 26 years. We are one of the top 10 web design agencies in Phoenix, having received awards for significant contributions to the field of web design.

Website compliance has become a crucial component in web design. PrimeView has the knowledge and experience to help businesses implement or expand their website accessibility to get - and stay compliant.

With the ongoing changes to the ADA standards and WCAG guidelines, many business owners are choosing PrimeView to help them navigate the precise and meticulous standards for compliant websites.

Allow our team of digital strategists to conduct a comprehensive review of your website. Our team will recommend tactical actions to help prevent you and your business from falling victim to unwarranted demand letters from legal practitioners seeking to capitalize on the ambiguity of ADA standards for websites.

How Can PrimeView help
with ADA Compliance?

Our complete ADA Compliance Services ensure your website is accessible to all users, helping your business not only grow, but also emphasize your dedication to accommodating everyone. A website which isn’t ADA Compliant doesn’t provide proper access to users with disabilities; therefore, your business can’t capture that audience. Consider how much business you may be losing because those users can’t properly access your site.

ACCESSIBILITY SOFTWARE INSTALLATION

Users with disabilities may be unable to adjust, but your website certainly can.

We can make your site tech-friendly for everyone by integrating AI-powered accessibility tools that adjust or improve your website's elements based upon each user's needs. For example, the software can read your content aloud for individuals with vision impairment, convert audio to text for those with hearing loss, or allow people who can't use a mouse to navigate your website by using just their keyboards. These technologies fulfill the accessibility needs of your users while you focus on your business.

OFFSITE LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES

An external or offsite link is any link that directs a user to a different domain. PrimeView follows the regulatory compliance recommendation to inform all users whenever a link will send them to a different website. For example, our web developers deploy pop-up banners to alert site visitors that they are leaving the current website. With the pop-up banners in place, your company will not be liable for any privacy, user experience, or any other issues that may arise once a visitor is directed to a different domain.

VIDEO ACCESSIBILITY

An accessible video includes captions, transcripts, and careful use of text, color, and flashes or animation. Your online videos should also be in an accessible format with an accessible media player, and may include an additional audio description when the default audio track is insufficient. PrimeView can upload your videos to a Private Video Hosting Platform that will automatically make your videos accessible once embedded in your website.

ACCESSIBILITY FOR DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT

In many cases, standard PDF and PPT files are not accessible, meaning people with disabilities using assistive technologies such as screen readers cannot read and comprehend the content correctly. Our accurate remediation processes ensure your PDFs, PPTs, DOC(X), XLSX, and other documents are accessible, compliant, and ready for everyone to use.

MONTHLY SUPPORT PROGRAM

We believe that open communication and client commitment are critical aspects of continued ADA website compliance and online success. Once you sign up for our ADA services, we will assign a team of dedicated specialists to provide you with monthly ADA compliance reports to keep you up to speed with your website's WCAG compliance status, as well as ensure your website maintains ADA web compliance through painstaking audits.

Want to ensure Accessibility for all?

Get Your FREE ADA Compliance Audit

What Makes PrimeView Better
at ADA Website Compliance

PrimeView is one of the few Phoenix-based ADA compliance companies that offer full-package web solutions that meet ADA accessibility requirements. Before introducing our ADA compliant services, we tested everything on our website to ensure each service fulfills its purpose and complies with the ADA guidelines.

Figuring out how to make a website ADA compliant is only the beginning. We are continuously improving our web solutions to help more companies and organizations complete their ADA requirements and have WCAG compliant websites.

Using our simple and reliable 5-step process our ADA specialists will:

Review your website to determine its compliance status
Present an in-depth report of your ADA compliance results
Discuss options for how to make your website ADA compliant
Install the ADA compliance software on your website and apply all necessary enhancements
Provide a monthly ADA and WCAG compliance report and assign a dedicated specialist to help with any concerns or questions you may have

Get ADA Assistance and Enhance
Your Site’s Functionality Today

Over one billion people with disabilities worldwide have limited access to information online due to the lack of assistive technologies and non-adapted methods of communication. Guarantee equal opportunities to your digital content for all web users with an ADA compliant website. Talk to us for more information on how to make your website ADA compliant.

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