This article explains a bit about what ADA compliance means for you and your Showit website.
Note: This guide is available as a resource to help you get started, but shouldn't be construed or relied upon as legal advice. Showit can't provide advice about making your site compliant with specific accessibility laws, regulations, or standards.
What is ADA Compliance?
The Americans with Disabilities Act was instituted in 1990 in an effort to end discrimination based on differing abilities. Drawing heavily from the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, which established protections against discrimination based on race, religion, sex or national origin, the ADA went a step further by requiring organizations to provide “reasonable accommodations” to employees with disabilities.
This was a fairly revolutionary addition that led to the widespread adoption of wheelchair access ramps, accessible restroom facilities, and many other equal-access accommodations that have become a regular part of most American workplaces. In 1990, however, legislators had no way of knowing that the then-infant internet would soon become not just a key element of doing business, but the very backbone of global commerce.
What Does the ADA Say About Websites?
The ADA’s relationship with websites has been a complicated and often confusing story. The ADA does not explicitly address online compliance, even after undergoing several amendments in the far more web-oriented era of 2008. With no specific coverage under the law, it usually falls to the courts to determine how ADA standards apply to websites—or whether they do at all.
Title III of the ADA requires that every owner, lessor, or operator of a “place of public accommodation” provide equal access to users who meet ADA standards for disability. With roughly 1.66 billion people around the world making online purchases in 2017, one might reasonably presume that this concept extends to websites, but from a legal standpoint, there is a surprising amount of grey area.
Various courts around America have ruled that commercial websites are places of public accommodation and thus subject to ADA rules. Other cases have concluded that websites are bound by ADA regulations if there is a close “nexus” between the site and a physical location, the most famous example being the ruling against the Winn-Dixie supermarket chain for not making its site accessible to users with low vision. Other courts have decided that the ADA as written simply does not offer any protections for online users. With no overarching federal rules in place, it’s difficult to make a definitive statement about whether or not any given website is governed by ADA accessibility rules.
Further complicating the issue, the U.S. recently appeared to be on the verge of adopting more comprehensive accessibility requirements. Federal regulations slated to go into effect in January 2018 would have held federal websites to the standards of WCAG 2.0 Level AA, the set of guidelines that provide the basis for online accessibility rules for most of Europe and many other nations around the world. The current administration, however, has withdrawn this requirement as part of a general push toward deregulation, leaving the online applications of the ADA as murky as ever.
Is ADA Compliance Mandatory for My Website?
As you’ve probably figured out by now, the answer is no, because it’s not at all clear how or even if ADA rules will be applied to any particular website. Still, it’s generally a good idea to err on the side of caution. Many states have adopted their own accessibility laws, and the volume of accessibility-related lawsuits filed against websites has ballooned in recent years. Plaintiffs have been more successful in these suits than ever before. With no clearly defined regulations to follow, it is probably not worth it for most companies to gamble that a court will rule in their favor.
So, without a clear set of accessibility regulations to comply what do I do?
Making Your Website ADA Compliant
The answer is to make it so that everyone, including persons with disabilities, can enjoy the “full and equal” use of your website; they can access content, navigate your website successfully, engage with different elements, etc.
The buzz phrase you’ll see commonly laced in plaintiff’s lawsuits is “effective communication” — does your website provide effective communication?
U.S. courts and the Department of Justice (DOJ) have continually referenced the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level AA success criteria as the standard to gauge whether websites are accessible.
The WCAG 2.0 AA success criteria are comprised of 38 requirements (including level A), individually referred to as success criterion.
WCAG is not the law but it is a very helpful technical reference.
Because there is no explicit web accessibility law for private entities in the United States (and nothing is expected in 2020 or 2021), there is no exact answer as to what is required.
WCAG is a technical guide and both the wording and what is being asked can be hazy or outright difficult to understand. Moreover, it may be tough for you to know exactly how to apply certain success criteria to your unique website.
What we recommend is trying your best to meet as many of the WCAG success criteria as best you can.
Also, ask yourself the following two questions:
What is the primary purpose of my website?
What are the common paths that visitors take once they’re on my website?
You want to make absolutely sure both the primary purpose and common paths are clear of any barriers that could potentially prevent access or cause frustration.
If you have any further questions regarding specific implementations of the WCAG standards, reach out to our support team and we'd love to help how we can!
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