Is Your Website ADA Compliant?

“California courts have found that businesses offering products or services to residents within the state must comply with ADA requirements for their websites – namely equal access to those with visual impairments. Under California law, each violation of the ADA can incur a $4,000 fine. However, those same laws also allow the prevailing party to recover their attorneys fees. What this means is that a website that does not offer the same services for the visually impaired can result in liability for the violation, plus the attorneys fees the visually impaired person incurred to bring the suit. If a company fights the claim, those attorneys fees can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, simply because the website was missing text tags for images, text navigation features, and other items required for the visually impaired to use the website in the same manner that those without visual impairments can use the site. The number of these kinds of lawsuits are increasing rapidly, and many small businesses are faced with thousands of dollars of liability based on seemingly small issues with their sites. While there are some legitimate cases out there, the vast majority of these lawsuits are brought by law firms who actively seek out websites that do not comply with the WCAG 2.1 standards. Knowing this potential liability, and ensuring that your sites work just as well for those with visual impairments and those without, is vital to avoiding the cost and expense of fighting these claims.”