Everything to know about ADA Compliance

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is the United States’ most important law is the regarding accessibility and civil rights for people with disabilities. Signed into law in 1990, and updated by George W. Bush in 2018, the ADA prohibits discrimination against anyone based on ability or disability. It came to fruition after a 2-year campaign to advance civil rights to marginalized groups, where disability activists lobbied for laws prohibiting discrimination. The ADA draws on the precedent set by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which guarantees rights to people with disabilities in the government sector.

How does the ADA affect websites?

As the internet and websites played a bigger role in how consumers interact with businesses, the way that the ADA applied to web accessibility changed.

In 2017, a clear consensus emerged that the ADA also covers the online world. Disability rights activists, legal scholars, and court rulings have agreed that websites, internet portals, and online stores need to be accessible for people with disabilities. In September 2018, Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd wrote an official letter to members of Congress explaining it’s mandatory that “goods, services, privileges, or activities provided by places of public accommodation be equally accessible to people with disabilities."

Today, U.S. courts apply ADA accessibility requirements to the internet, meaning websites should comply with ADA rules. Reinforcement was displayed by the Department of Justice in 2022 when it released a new guidance on implementing web accessibility standards and practices, clarifying that the ADA indeed covers web accessibility.

How does the ADA affect websites?

ADA title III-related lawsuits have skyrocketed. There were at least 11,452 federal filings in 2021, which is a 320% increase over a short, eight-year period. And, as of 2020, 265,000 demand letters were sent to businesses that operated were inaccessible websites.

There are a few reasons why ADA web accessibility has become such a hot legal topic:

  • eCommerce is booming

    Total U.S. eCommerce sales reached an all- time high of approximately $960 billion in 2021, and online retail in 2021 purchases now represent almost 15% of all retail spending.

  • Increased web accessibility awareness

    High-profile lawsuits mean Increased web that people with disabilities now know they have legal recourse when they can’t conduct activities online.

  • The U.S. legal environment makes it easy

    A person with a disability The U.s. legal has nothing to lose by filing a lawsuit since ADA Title lll requires the defendant to automatically pay the plaintiff’s legal fees.

Everyone should take ADA lawsuits seriously

Approximately 85% of ADA lawsuits in federal and state courts during 2018 were filed against small and medium retail businesses. Since it’s almost inevitable that the court would find in favor of the plaintiff, small business owners feel that they must settle out of court. The cost of defending a lawsuit could destroy even a medium-sized business, but the average ADA website lawsuit settlement still comes to $35,000.

Your web designer / agency is not responsible/liable for non-compliance unless specifically hired/contracted to include ADA Compliance which is an ongoing, not a one-time-and-done solution.

Think Different Designs has partnered with accessIbe to offers this additional service to clients.

Web accessibility remediation

According to ADA title III, every business website has to be accessible to people with disabilities, or it will be at risk of being sued and facing unnecessary legal expenses. We recommend use of our AI and machine learning web accessibility solution to solve this problem. According to our research, this is the most affordable and simple solution in the market today.

Our service provides:

An accessibility statement and certification of performance.
Compliance with WCAG, ADA, EAA & more
Screen-reader & keyboard navigation adjustments
Monthly accessibility compliance audits
Automatic daily monitoring and scans
Dedicated litigation Support Package

Monthly Plan

$44.10

Per Month
  • Client Pays Directly
  • Billed by AccessIbe
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Include with Hosting Plan

$70

Per Month
  • Required 12 Month Hosting
    Basic Plan at Mininum
  • Billed by Think Different Designs
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Standard pricing for a small-business / small non-profit is $490 per year or $49 a month on the monthly billing plan. Think Different Designs has negotiated a discounted plan for our clients for $441 a year or $44.10 per month, a savings of 10%, or %49 yearly, $4.90 per month.

What are the ADA website compliance standards?

The DOJ has frequently referenced the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level AA as the goal for website accessibility, even though this isn’t codified into law. At the moment, WCAG 2.1 is the best measure of web accessibility when it comes to federal law, and it’s unlikely that a WCAG 2.1 Level AA compliant website would be sued for inaccessibility.