Immedia Creative partners with UserWay to help improve ADA & WCAG Compliance.
Scottsdale, Arizona – June 28, 2022
Immedia Creative LLC, a leading Design Agency specializing in customized Branding, Print and Website Development, announced today a partnership with UserWay, the #1 web accessibility solution for Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) compliance.
Together with UserWay, Immedia Creative aims to help clientele greatly improve ADA compliance online, with an initial solution that is both affordable and easy to implement.
In recent months, more consumers are conducting day-to-day activities online than ever before. With an increase in online socializing, travel booking, shopping, banking, appointment booking, etc., ensuring websites are fully accessible to people with disabilities is becoming increasingly important for every type of business. Website accessibility not only protects online businesses legally, it enhances the businesses’ reputation and boosts sales by enabling retailers to serve people with a large demographic of shoppers that require additional assistance.
“As a web development agency, I feel it’s imperative to stay educated on best practices, especially when it comes to accessibility and compliance issues. That said, my agency has no legal experience nor expertise in ADA / WCAG compliance, so I was uncertain where to start.
The more I researched ADA Compliance, the more I realized there’s still no concise legislation to reference. This is creating confusion among agencies like mine and their clients. Additionally, no client runs the same type of business, so each may have their own unique compliance requirements.
Therefore, while I recommend each client consults an attorney that specializes in ADA compliance, I still want Immedia Creative to stay proactively educated. If we discover a technology that can even partially assist our clients achieve compliance, I’m committed to making them aware of it and knowing how to implement it on their behalf.
By installing the UserWay overlay, clients can take a large step toward making their site accessible. The solution is easy to implement and helps online businesses mitigate the risk of lawsuits. But most importantly, it enables our clients to provide a better online experience to those with disabilities.”
Tony Camarata, Founder & Creative Director.
About UserWay:
UserWay is the world’s #1 global digital accessibility leader, committed to enabling the fundamental human right of digital inclusion.
The UserWay widget is trusted by more than 1 million websites and is relied upon by more than 60 million users with disabilities every day.
UserWay’s Al-powered technology, combined with human-in-the-loop remediation processes, help enterprise websites more readily achieve compliance with accessibility standards, such as WCAG 2.1, EN 301-549 and Section 508 regulations, as required by US and international governmental and regulatory bodies.
For more information, visit: https://UserWay.org
Would You Like to 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:
ADA / WCAG Website Compliance in 2022
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: