ADA Compliance
What is ADA Compliance?
ADA stands for the Americans with Disabilities Act. It is a law that protecting accessibility rights for people with disabilities, and includes website accessibility.
Why you should care about ADA Compliance
You understand ADA compliance with public areas such as special transportation vans, ramps, and handicap parking spaces. However, on the web, it encompasses the accessibility of content on a website and how it is configured for usage by a person with disabilities.
A screenshot of the ada.gov website for Americans with Disabilities Act.
Link to ADA.gov Homepage: https://www.ada.gov
Who has to comply with the ADA Compliance standard?
It applies to all businesses, not just large corporations. If you have even 15 employees, you are in risk of potential law action being taken against you. Here are some examples:
- Movie theaters
- Concert halls
- Small and medium sized businesses
- Retail stores
- Large enterprises
- Government agencies
- Labor unions
The rise of ADA Accessibility lawsuits
Experts estimate that over 40,000 demand letters were sent in 2018 and that 100,000 letters were sent in 2019. This resulted in over 10,000 lawsuits for accessibility problems.
Small Businesses should take ADA lawsuits seriously
Famous companies like Nike and Domino’s have been hit with large accessibility lawsuits. In 2018, it is estimated that 85% of ADA lawsuits were filed against small and medium sized businesses.
The average cost of a lawsuit can cripple most small businesses. A settlement agreement can be as low as 35,000 and upwards of millions of dollars.
eCommerce and Accessibility
It is important to understand that accessibility is more than initial cost for developing and redesigning a website to be compliant. It is a costly endeavor but can have equally benefiting results. You can see improvement in your SEO and site ranking on Google. Your store also is friendly for disabled users who make up to 21 billion a year in sales. That is a market that still is untapped!