Do you have an ADA accessible website? What does that even mean?
The ‘Americans with Disabilities Act [ADA]’ was a landmark piece of legislation that opened a world of opportunities for people who had been left behind because of a disability. An ADA accessible website conforms to this law by making it easily accessible to people with disabilities.
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What if you don’t have an ADA accessible website?
Did you know that 20% – 1 in every 5 – of the people who visit your website cannot interact with it well enough to take action because of a disability?
Many people cannot see well enough to read it and may even require a screen reader to get your message across to them? Others may not be physically able to interact with your website.
You’re actually losing money – 20% of your potential customers – because your website is not ADA accessible. Fully one fifth of all the money you’re spending on ads, SEO or social media is wasted because people cannot receive or act on your message.
There’s another problem: Your business’ website may be vulnerable to a lawsuit if it’s not ADA accessible? It’s true. The Ninth Circuit held that “the ADA applies to (a business’ website), as a means of accessing its physical locations.” And in October of 2019, the US Supreme Court upheld that decision.
In fact, the ADA requires businesses to make accommodations for people with disabilities in ALL their web content.
Please don’t take this lightly – it’s ABSOLUTELY real and you could be held liable and even get sued if you’re not in compliance.
Some “less-than-scrupulous” lawyers scrape the internet for non-ADA compliant websites. They then sue the owner for non-compliance. Most businesses just settle the claim for a few thousand dollars.
But why even risk the hassle of these nuisance lawsuits?
Non-Compliance Realities
Here’s some of the eye-opening realities:
- There were over 1,500 legal cases related to ADA non-compliance issues in 2018 just in New York alone.
- In 2019, over 10,000 businesses were sued because their website was not ADA accessible. This number surpassed in 2021.
- The Department of Justice embraces ADA website lawsuits
- One recent case was settled for a cost of $6,000,000
- The average liability exposure to a small businesses is $50,000
Many website shortcomings, like GDPR, require legal notice before a lawsuit is filed against a business for non-compliance.
However, this is not the case with the ADA law. If your website isn’t ADA accessible, you can be sued at any time without warning.
Ignorance Is No Excuse
What’s sad is that most website owners are ignorant of this new ADA law and many are being targeted and sued for non-compliance. But as you no doubt already know, ignorance of the law is not an excuse.
Make no mistake, if your website doesn’t follow this law correctly, you may be forced to tap into your nest egg or retirement fund.
Bottom line – Ignorance Is No Excuse. If Your Site Isn’t Compliant, You Can Be Sued!
Audible Eye describes this digital accessibility like this: Think about digital accessibility the same way you think of accessibility in the physical world. If a building isn’t designed for someone using an assistive device, like a wheelchair, that person is blocked from moving around that building. Similarly, if a website is not designed to work with assistive technology, like a screen reader, that individual is blocked from moving around that website.
In 2019, over 10,000 businesses were sued because their website was not ADA accessible. The average liability exposure to a small businesses is $50,000.
That’s especially troubling right now when many companies are being forced to do more and more business online. Now that you have to do even more work through your website, we urge you to make sure it is ADA accessible. Not only will you avoid costly lawsuits, but an ADA accessible ranks higher in the search engines.
What makes an ADA accessible website
So what does it take for a website to be ADA accessible? Unfortunately, ALL your web content – web pages, articles, videos, etc. – require some specific features:
- Text to speech features
- Correct Alt text for all images
- Zoom in & out features
- Ability to alter colors or contrast
- Accessibility policy pages
- And a multitude of other features
It takes quite a bit of work to add all the necessary items to bring your site into compliance. That can present a big problem for any website owner.
Here’s the good news: We can now provide access to the 20% of visitors left behind because your website wasn’t ADA Accessible while also protecting your business and assets starting at only $49 per month! We even have a one-time fee option!
Here’s what You Get
A Widget to install on your website (super easy, especially for WordPress sites!). The Widget enables the accessibility settings and displays the accessibility policy.
And because we’re a full-service marketing agency, we know the ADA Accessibility is just the first step toward Dominating Your Local Market. So we also wanted to give you something that can help boost your rankings, leads and sales.
A FREE Promotional Video
Since content is king and the best content these days is video, we’ll send you a promotional video using content from your website. Post it on your website, your Google Business Profile page, Facebook Business Page – wherever you want!
There’s Even a Tax Credit
Finally, we wanted to let you know that you can get a tax credit just for making your website ADA Accessible. We’ll include everything you need to get back every penny you deserve from the tax man!
No Money Today
Best of all, you don’t even have to spend any money today. There’s no Buy Now button anywhere on this page.
That’s because you can get started with ADA Accessibility today just by starting a free trial. We’ll make your website ADA Accessible and you can reap the benefits today.
You owe us nothing until you’re completely satisfied! But keep the promotional video as our gift regardless of what you decide.
Reach the 20% of website visitors you’re missing out on while avoiding pesky and potentially very expensive lawsuits. And get a promotional video AND a tax break to boot!
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