Background
As you may know, the American Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 was extended in recent years by the Department of Justice to include any Title I and Title III business websites – which basically translates to ALL.
This means website owners must make an evident effort to ensure each area of their site is equally accessible to people with disabilities.
https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/10900-ada-website-requirements.html
There’s no question it’s the right thing to do, just like the laws that dictate brick-and-mortar businesses must provide safe entry via ramps and handicap friendly doors.
The Unpleasant Truth
Unfortunately, the Department of Justice hasn’t published clear legislation nor does the ADA offer set guidelines on which website modifications are required to achieve compliance.
This has placed an ambiguous cloud of risk over the heads of website developers and owners, forcing us to consider costly yet potentially arbitrary updates to web properties in the hopes they satisfy the needs of our handicap audience members while successfully mitigating any legal liability.
To make matters worse, many law firms are exploiting this lack of clear legislation for their own gain: aggressively crawling the web looking for non-compliant sites, claiming they were retained by an impaired client, filing suit, and winning large settlements of which they pocket much of.
https://www.courthousenews.com/law-firm-accused-of-ada-shakedown-of-small-businesses/
Are You at Risk of Being Non-compliant?
The unfortunate fact is, yes. If your website is not accessible to people with disabilities, you can get sued for thousands of dollars, plus the cost to retroactively bring your site into compliance.
Since 2018 there has been a 300% year-over-year increase in lawsuits and demand letters hitting businesses in all industries for having a website that is deemed inaccessible.
Before 2021, it was typically very large companies being litigated against, but as of last year claims against small-to-medium sized businesses began to steadily increase.
This has incentivized me to find a proactive solution for clients as soon as possible.
So What is the Solution?
Many organizations are choosing to follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). This isn’t a legal requirement, rather a reference point for organizations looking to improve their digital accessibility.
But until recently there was still no reasonable way for small-to-medium sized businesses to adopt WCAG guidelines and make their websites accessible.
Despite my personal desire to provide one, I am NOT a lawyer nor am I an expert in disability compliance. So I began talking with industry experts, consultants, and companies that specialize in ensuring websites are as ADA / WCAG compliant as possible.
After diligent research into this matter and much deliberation, Immedia Creative LLC has decided to partner with UserWay to provide you the option to greatly improve your website’s accessibility quickly and affordably.
Read the Press Release:
https://immediacreative.com/ada-compliance-wcag-compliance/
How Does it Work?
The UserWay widget allows people with disabilities to easily change dozens of audio & visual options on your website including but not limited to: font size, font spacing, stop-motion, colors, brightness, contrast, voice dictation, tab navigation and many other default settings.
A person with disabilities can enhance and customize the user experience to their individual needs, and all with zero impact on other visitors or to your website’s existing code.
The widget is affordable and can be installed, configured and launched within hours.
See a live example on our website NOW by clicking the Accessibility Icon in the lower left corner.
Schedule a Demo
I would love to spend 15-30 minutes together reviewing options and addressing any questions, comments or concerns you may have.
To set up a time please visit my calendar: