You’ve gone to great lengths to ensure a top-notch user experience on your website, but is your site truly accessible? Your definition of accessibility may differ from the legal standard established in the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Companies that fail to cater to visitors with disabilities increasingly find themselves in court defending, and often settling, lawsuits that can be costly both financially and in terms of negative publicity. Brokerage firm Charles Schwab and video-streaming service Netflix are two companies that settled ADA compliance lawsuits in 2012, and the list of major financial institutions that have defended these lawsuits stretches back to 2000.
“Websites in many ways are becoming the next frontier for ADA litigation,” Brian G. Muse, a Virginia-based ADA defense attorney at LeClairRyan, told me for an article published in The Financial Brand. “For the past 10 years, we’ve seen an explosion of these lawsuits.”
He noted, “I don’t want to sound like an alarmist, but the point is you need to pay attention to accessibility and perhaps modify your site.”
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) produces the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 used to develop websites that provide suitable accessibility to everyone.
ZAG Interactive can answer questions about your website’s level of accessibility and provide the functionality needed for ADA compliance. Contact us today to learn more.