Websites should be accessible to everyone, according to Americas with Disabilities, because an inaccessible one shuts out differently-abled people and those with disabilities.
The Department of Justice prioritizes the need for websites to allow accessibility to challenged individuals, just like physical entrances create ramps to allow easier climbing for people with wheelchairs. Non-compliance with ADA standards can attract lawsuits that can be costly for your business.
Let’s explore some of the legal implications of a website being non-compliant with ADA accessibility standards.
Lawsuits
Legal consequences for non-compliance with ADA website accessibility are severe and fatal. These lawsuits come in the form of a plaintiff suing your website because they cannot access some of the content of your website because they are incompatible with different abilities.
For instance, an individual with hearing challenges may sue your website for uploading videos without subtitles, making it difficult for them to follow through.
Your business website may attract legal fees, which can cause your business unplanned financial burdens. These fees include the lawyer’s fees and the plaintiff’s. However, you can avoid these legal risks by consulting website compliance services to ensure your website is accessible to all. Accessibility means you include everyone in sharing your knowledge as uploaded on the website. Protect your business from financial losses by complying with ADA accessibility standards.
Accessibility Implementation
A company being sued does not mean that the plaintiff must win the legal battle. In such a case, when a company wins a court battle, the court mandates the company to implement accessibility standards for their website lest they get sued a second time. Incorporating accessibility for your websites comes with a cost. This is why many companies avoid digitally upgrading their sites. Being mandated by a court to make the changes can cause you to stretch your budget because you are given a deadline by which you may face the consequences if you fail to do so by then.
Staff Training Ordered By Court
Legal precedent exists whereby the court orders your company to train the staff in matters regarding ADA regulations compliance for their websites. After you get sued for accessibility in compliance, the court then mandates you to pay for staff training and hire an accessibility coordinator and other staff to assist you in updating your website. For instance, when screen readers fail to use your website, you can be ordered by the court to train your web designers to create a readable screen. The sudden requirements to carry out staff training could cost your business unexpected expenses.
Civil Fees
Non-compliance with ADAs website accessibility regulations could attract federal fines that can be as much as $75,000. These fines are for the first offenders, while there could be an addition of $150,000 for more violations.
These costs add up to the payments you have to make for the services to upgrade your site for accessibility creating a strain on your expenditure.
You should upgrade your website to include, for instance, an audio description of videos to allow individuals with total visual impairment to access your content or zooming features to allow users to view larger texts and the use of proper contrasting for people with visual challenges.
Issuance of Demand Letters
Demand letters can turn legal if the summoned company fails to comply with the demands to fix parts of its website that are non-compliant with ADA accessibility standards. In the past years, these demand letters were uncommon because the number of people using the internet was low. However, recently the numbers have risen, including for those with disabilities. Most of the websites were developed with ignorance of the fact that they were supposed to make them accessible to everyone. Therefore, companies are given a chance to fix them before they attract lawsuits against them. You can receive these letters from ADA advocacy groups or individuals with disabilities. These demand letters are mostly sent to websites that deal with visual content.
Negative Publicity
The world is now appreciating individuals abled differently, and it is enforcing inclusivity for all. Therefore, having an ADA lawsuit could soil your reputation. This is because you will attract labels as discriminatory against people with disabilities. You can easily lose loyalty from customers because if your brand is well known, most of these lawsuits are magnified by the media. Losing customers means losing your business because the customer base is life to your business’s success.
All businesses should aspire to include everyone to share in the content they publish. Failure to comply with ADA accessibility standards could damage your business more than good, even when you are unaware of the consequences.
Non-compliance attracts legal implications that can cost your business financial burden and unexpected expenses that could have otherwise catered for other business operations. To avoid all these, be sure to consult services that conduct an audit of your websites and determine the accessibility score, then later guide you on areas you must fix to prevent lawsuits.