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ADA Compliant Website Basics

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ADA Compliant Websites are fast becoming a necessity – and this article covers important information about the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance and how it affects your business and your website.

What Is An ADA Compliant Website?

An ADA-compliant website makes your website accessible to people with disabilities. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that websites be accessible, as they are considered “places of public accommodation.”

What Are The Benefits Of An ADA-Compliant Website?

There are 3 key benefits of making your website ADA compliant:

1. Mitigate Legal Risk: In 2023, there was an unprecedented surge in litigation and demand letters related to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), culminating in a historic 4,605 lawsuits being filed. The average legal settlement cost was roughly $30,000. When you invest in an ADA-compliant / accessible website, it can save time and money that would be spent settling a potential lawsuit.

2. Optimize your website’s reach: By developing an ADA-compliant website, your website becomes accessible to roughly 15% of the population who are an underserved and loyal group of consumers. In addition, making your website ADA-compliant and accessible to disabled people helps reduce the bounce rates and maximizes your website’s reach with enhanced search visibility.

3. Receive tax incentives: There also is a tax credit available to business owners who invest in accessibility.

How Can I Make My Website ADA Compliant?

There are two key ways to make your website accessible to everyone.

The first way is through manual, page-by-page remediation, which is the process of manually testing and resolving issues on each page of your website. This improves the functions of the core aspects of your website. However, this option can be quite expensive.

The second way to create an ADA compliant website is through adding a software tool to your website that is designed to help remediate and solve many of the accessibility problems. When you choose to implement this solution, you will pay a fee for the annual software subscription and for the web developer to install the software on your website. When this action has been successfully completed, your website will feature a graphic element of a human figure. When you LEFT CLICK on that graphic, an Accessibility screen will appear with a variety of options, depending on the disability. Highlights of the options that will be available include:

  • A Seizure Safe Profile (This setting prevents flashes of light that can trigger an epileptic seizure and reduces the color.)
  • A Vision Impaired Profile (This setting enhances the websites visuals.)
  • An ADHD-friendly Profile (This setting provides for a more singular focus and less distractions.)
  • A Cognitive Disability Profile (This setting assists with reading & focusing.)
  • A Keyboard Navigation Tool (This setting allows those with motor impairments to use the keyboard.)
  • A Blind Users Profile (This setting provides a screen reader tool.)

When you have an ADA Compliant Website, and click on the Accessibility graphic, you also can choose a more readable font, use a text magnifier, adjust text colors (in case of color blindness), and more.

ADA Compliant Website | ADA Website Compliance Basics | DeWinter Marketing & PR USA

How Do I Obtain An ADA Compliant Website?

Most WordPress website developers will have options for you to purchase, and then the web developer will install the software to make your website ADA compliant. The DeWinter Marketing & PR website development team has been thoughtfully & carefully assessing technical options for creating ADA compliant websites for the past couple of years. After thorough research, we chose to partner with an industry leader in Website ADA Compliance – and we offer an AI-powered solution for quickly and easily rendering a website ADA compliant. The solution costs $600 per year (equates to $50/month). This cost includes installation of the ADA compliance software solution, ongoing maintenance, an accessibility statement, monthly compliance audits, and access to a litigation support package if you receive a demand letter or lawsuit regarding ADA compliance.

That’s another reason why we chose the website ADA compliance solution that we have chosen. This ADA Compliance solution for websites offers a litigation support package as part of the annual subscription. This means that, in the event of a demand letter or lawsuit, the accessibility statement and monthly compliance audits are supplied to the person or entity trying to sue you. This is typically enough to mitigate legal risk and deter a frivolous lawsuit. Plus, in the rare case that the entity suing you refuses to back down after you’ve proven you have an ADA-compliant website, this company offers additional litigation support to help you navigate the situation.

We hope these ADA compliant website basics help underscore the need to get your website ADA compliant.

If you need help with creating an ADA compliant website, contact DeWinter Marketing & PR.

Courtney DeWinter is the president & founder of Denver-based DeWinter Marketing & PR in Denver, Colorado. She is a marketing & PR consultant with 25+ years of experience in branding, marketing, public relations, websites & journalism.

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