Dear Doc:
The design of websites has become very complex, and web pages are now essential to the way companies do business. I have heard that websites are required to be accessible to people with disabilities. What does that mean?
Signed,
Honestly Accommodating
Dear HA:
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) public-facing websites of businesses (and state/local governments) must be accessible to people with disabilities, which in practice means meeting Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Level AA (currently 2.1/2.2) or providing equally effective access by other means. Failure to do so can lead to Department of Justice enforcement, private lawsuits (including class actions), injunctive orders to remediate, and substantial civil penalties and legal costs, plus reputational damage.
Title III of the ADA requires that retailers, restaurants, hotels, professional offices, and other “public accommodations” must ensure that the goods and services offered on their websites are accessible to people with disabilities. Although web sites themselves are not specifically mentioned in the Act, courts have ruled that they must meet the ADA standards.
In brief, the requirements include that each website must feature “perceivable content” such as alt text for images and other non-textual information, captions for video and audio content, and sufficient contrast and resizable text to allow reading by the visually impaired. The site must also have an “operable interface” which means that it may be used, if desired, with only a keyboard (no mouse, trackpad, etc.). Flashing content (that could trigger a seizure) must be absent, and all information presented must be “understandable”, meaning that titles, headings, and links must be clear and unambiguous as to their actions. Finally, the code of the site must not interfere with the use of assistive technologies and must function compatibly across browsers and devices.
The Doc knows that all of this is a bit dense for small companies that just want a basic web page. But just imagine how much effort is required if you’re a gigantic site such as Amazon! (There is also an equivalent to the ADA in Europe: the European Accessibility Actand it is even more complicated.
So what’s a business owner to do, you ask?
A practical path to full ADA compliance includes:
• Conducting an accessibility audit using both automated tools and manual testing (including keyboard-only and screen-reader testing);
• Prioritizing fixes that remove barriers (e.g., non‑keyboard‑accessible menus, unlabeled form fields, missing alt text on critical images, and inaccessible PDFs);
• Building accessibility requirements into contracts with web developers;
• Establishing a public accessibility statement on the website, with a contact method and a defined process to respond promptly to accessibility requests.
Like many regulations, the most important thing to do is become educated, and then to take action. Reading this, you’ve taken the first step. Now make a plan. Is your site already accessible? How do you know? Use some of the testing tools linked above. Talk to your developers. Moving in the right direction is the key to avoiding enforcement actions and lawsuits.
Have a legal question about technology issues? Contact the attorneys at LW&H. They “get” this techie stuff.
Until next month,
The “Doc”
— Lawrence A. Husick, Esq.