Compassion == Dollars

This year it has come to my attention that most websites are not adequately accessible to people with disabilities. I had no idea there were so many designers and developers that had no appreciation for people with disabilities or how they experience and navigate the internet. Consequently companies and institutions are being sued.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) was started 24 years ago and created the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). These are the standards by which all designers and developers should create websites and display content online. In 2010 the DoJ expanded their ADA requirements to include digital media, like websites, videos and the like. It's why we see closed captioning on TV. They also refer to the WCAG as the standard devs should follow. If companies do not use conforming, knowledgeable, and empathetic developers and firms to build their online presence, they can be held liable.

Liable? Like To Be Sued In Court Over a Website?!

Yes, lawsuits are being brought if a company's website isn't accessible to people with disabilities. Some names you might not often see in a list together, are: Domino's, Burger King, Hobby Lobby, Beyoncé, Harvard, Cornell, Vanderbilt, – the list goes on. All of those entities have been sued in the last 2+ years for having websites that are not accessible to people with disabilities. In 2018 more than 2000 of the estimated 10,000+ ADA compliance lawsuits filed were for websites being less than empathetic to disabled persons. 2018 saw triple the number of lawsuits over digital ADA compliance filed in 2017. Target ended up spending more than $12 Million, in remedying their compliance issues, payouts, and court costs. As I said earlier, if you get sued and lose, you not only have to fix your website, but you have to pony up to the person suing you, court costs, their attorneys, and your attorneys, plus suffer the PR nightmare.  

Is there upside to all this?

Yes on the flip side if you get your company's website up to standards, Google will rank your site higher in search. That and it's been documented companies that make between $20K and $30K per month from online sales see growth of between $7K and $8K per month, after becoming compliant with W3C WCAG standards. More people can use your site to purchase, and more people can find it. Win/win.

So what do I do about it?

Are you fearful that after having spent a bunch of money, on your new site with some less than credible person or firm, that you will now have to outlay even more to get a good site? Most definitely.  But it will increase your business. So your bottom line goes up a little - but so does your top line.  

My advice is to engage a reputable and legitimate company now – one that exercises good practices. Things you should look for: they should have been around for a while, show that they can follow the W3C's WCAG, and have use cases. Anyone can build a website with the free or cheap tools out today. But should they? They might have made your company vulnerable to attacks.