ADA Compliant Websites

There is a 98% chance your current website is NOT ADA compliant!

98% of U.S.-based webpages are not accessible to the disability community from a legal perspective, according to the 2020 Web Accessibility Annual Report compiled by the accessiBe initiative, which analyzed more than 10 million webpages to determine their compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (2.1 WCAG). Non-compliance with the WCAG guidelines in regard to various website components includes menus (98 percent of websites fail to comply), images (52 percent fail), pop-ups (89 percent fail), forms (71 percent fail), icons (76 percent fail), buttons (83 percent fail), and links (22 percent fail).

The Problem With Overlays & Plugins!

Overlays give a false sense of security.

An overlay gives the impression of fixing your site without actually fixing your site. You've still got bad code on your site but now it's hidden behind more options and more confusion. The reason for the law is to give everyone equal access to your services and products. However, since it needs some type of input to be activated ... it is already not treating everyone the same.

Fines can run $5,000.00 per problem and lawsuits $100,000.00 or more.

And you can get sued and fined over over again until you fix the site.

There has been a steady increase in lawsuits for non compliant websites as well as government fines that start at $50,000.00 per an incident. The business owner is solely responsible for making sure their website is ADA compliant.

Do accessibility overlays make a website compliant?

No!

To start with 75% of the things that need to be checked need to be done manually. Accessibility overlays can make sure that the pieces are in place but it can’t make sure that the content and information is set up correctly.

At its best it can only fix about 25% of the problems.

Overlays are scripts hosted on third-party sites.

These plugins and overlays always create a bad user experience because they always slow a site down. Plugins and overlays add friction to the user experience that wouldn't be there had the site been coded correctly.

53% of people will leave if your site takes longer than 3 seconds to load.

Overlays create problems!

An overlay gives the impression of fixing your site without actually fixing your site. You've still got bad code on your site but now it's hidden behind more options and more confusion.

The reason for the law is to give everyone equal access.

However, since this code is on a third party site and needs some type of input, someone with a disability is already not being treated the same as the people who access your site without a disability.

And if they do figure out how to activate your overlay, (because it's not in the main code) there is the question of how well it will navigate the site and make the changes.

Overlays Slow Down Your Website

And because website speed is a ranking factor it's going to affect your rankings, sales, and traffic.

You should also note that ad blockers sometimes block overlays.

A small website can cost you $5,000.00 or more.

But fines and lawsuits can run you $100,000.00 or more and you can get sued over and over again until you fix the site.

8.1 million Americans were considered blind

As Baby Boomers retire, this number is on the rise.

In 2010, 8.1 million Americans were considered blind or unable to see, 7.6 million Americans had difficulty hearing, and 19.9 million people had difficulty lifting or gripping objects like a touch screen, trackpad or computer mouse.