ADA Compliance – UserWay & After Dark Grafx

ADA Stands for The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and became law in 1990. The ADA is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life, including jobs, schools, transportation, and all public and private places that are open to the general public. (see more details here – you will be sent away from this website)

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) international standard. WCAG documents explain how to make web content more accessible to people with disabilities.

– Widget on your Website
– Monthly Scanning
– Audit of Existing Website

By contacting After Dark Grafx or signing up for UserWay services here. You may make an attempt to make your website somewhat ADA Compliant or hand it off to your web developer but it is always best to have Professional ADA Compliance Experts handle these tasks. You can make an attempt to add ALT tags to your images and descriptions, add title tags to your links and other modifications, but unless the site is updated and tested and scanned at the time of updates to ensure compliance, you are basically wasting your money.

Perform the free ADA Compliance Scan Test above or click here to go directly to UserWay.org.

If you are an organization with 10 or more employees or your website is typically more than 5 pages, it is a good idea to at least look at ADA Compliance Audits before your website becomes very large.

That’s ok, WE DO! Simply contact us above and we will do the rest. We do offer a FREE 30 Minute No Obligation Consultation.

This really depends on the make up of your website, how many pages are on the site, do the images and text and backgrounds have easily definable contrast ratios, are your images tagged correctly, are your links tagged correctly and so forth. You can contact us for a FREE 30 Minute No Obligation Consultation or you can go directly here to view ADA Compliance AUDIT Pricing.

1) You will need a UserWay Account go here to sign up for a free account.

2) Depending on your web platform there are widgets for most like WordPress, Joomla, Wix Shopify and more. You will either install the widget plugin or app or copy code onto your website. Need help? Contact us.

If you received a demand letter or legal complaint regarding your website’s lack of accessibility or failing ADA Compliance), you need to take it action as soon as possible.

Failure to comply with Section 508 of the Department of Justice’s Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Standards for Accessible Design could expose your company to civil litigation, hefty fines and the risk of expensive criminal litigation.

Accessibility violations that prevent people with disabilities from accessing your website are common among websites since the laws are not strictly enforced. They are, however, serious violations of federal ADA laws.

It is more than likely did not intend to violate the Americans with Disabilities Act and there is a strong likelihood that the claimant who sent you the demand letter, complaint or lawsuit had been directly adversely affected by accessibility barriers on your site. So you need to take heed.

Perform the free ADA Compliance Scan Test – click here to go directly to UserWay.org. If your website does not pass compliance, you will need to run an Audit of your site. It is best to contact us first before proceeding but you can always just do this yourself.

FINES
Websites that do not meet WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards can be fined up to $50,000 for a first violation, $100,000 for a second, and even more for compensation of damages. Over 2250 website accessibility violation lawsuits were filed in 2018 and double that in 2019. That number is expected to triple this year. Don’t get on this list.

You need to act fast to ensure compliance with the ADA.

An accessible website will allow nearly 20% of the population that has some form of disability to access your site’s content without any barriers or limitations and just general good business and human of the world practice.

Act Fast to Mitigate Your Risk of Further Legal Exposure
You should make a strong effort to make your website accessible as soon as possible. As long as you act on the notice or act before you receive a notice, to ensure your site is made fully accessible for any individual that requires accessibility functions, and to demonstrate your goodwill and real effort towards achieving such compliance goes a long way.

The ultimate goal is to ensure your site is made fully accessible for individuals who rely on assistive technologies and other accessibility enhancements as well as to provide your business with a protective legal framework that is necessary in today’s business environment.

UserWay audit reports are best-in-class reports that meet the strict standards enforced by government and regulatory bodies in the US and internationally.

Web accessibility can seem complex and overwhelming if you don’t know where to start. Our Approach: start small, one step at a time.

 

So, to sum it up…

1) GET EXPERTS ON YOUR SIDE:
a) Hire an Attorney in your state who is well versed in accessibility complaints.
b) Hire a Developer who is able to edit your website and help to make it ADA Compliant or at least bring it up to the most recent compliance standards if applicable.

2) FIX WHAT’S EASY TO FIX:
INSTALL USERWAY’S FREE ACCESSIBILITY WIDGET to remediate 70% to 100% of the most common WCAG violations. The widget is free and can be installed in minutes.

3) DEMONSTRATE A REAL EFFORT TO MAKE CHANGES
Keep track of your efforts to make your website compliant. This goes a long way when dealing with these types of complaints. You should request a full website compliance audit. The moment the UserWay Accessibility Audit begins, UserWay provides legal documentation demonstrating that you are making an effort to meet the compliance.

4) MAINTAIN COMPLIANCE
After you have completed your compliance update and your website is now ADA Compliant, your legal issues have been rectified and have settled any and all issues, you will want to maintain a monthly scanner that tracks your website and notifies you of any compliance issues in the event that your website begins to fail compliance. This way to can head off any new potential lawsuits.

It may not be legally required for your site to be ADA compliant right now, but it may be in the future and it is just best practice for those with disabilities. The law for this is still in its’ infancy.