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  • What is Web Accessibility & Why is it Important?

    What is Web Accessibility & Why is it Important?

    Most of us can hardly conceive what life would be like without the internet. The ability to have the world at your fingertips or the click of a mouse. But what if you can’t use a mouse? What if you can’t see the screen of your computer or hear a video playing?

    As soon as we ask these types of questions, we can begin to see how the internet can create barriers, leaving some users frustrated and reliant on others. However, once we can recognize these barriers, we can begin to remove them, creating web content, design, and tools that everyone can use regardless of their ability. Here is an introduction to the basics of web accessibility. 

    What is Web Accessibility?

    We have all experienced the annoyance of squinting at a poorly selected font, blurry images, or trying to navigate a page that is not compatible with mobile devices. While these issues are a slight inconvenience, they can restrict or eliminate their internet usage to some. 

     Web accessibility provides everyone with the same access to digital information without any hindrance, regardless of impairments or disabilities. Users should be equipped with the tools and capabilities to aid in the website’s perception, understanding, contribution, navigation, and interaction. 

    Why is Web Accessibility Important?

    The internet is an essential resource in almost every aspect of life. During the 2020 COVID pandemic, the internet became a lifeline to many, keeping the world connected. The high rate of digital adoption within the past two years has revolutionized our lives and society. Still, a significant percentage of the world’s population is limited or cannot use the internet due to accessibility barriers. 

    Web Accessibility for Users

    Accessibility barriers hinder users with disabilities from interacting and experiencing the internet. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 1 billion people have some disability, with the rates continuing to rise from chronic health conditions and population aging.  

    There are three disabilities or impairments: conditional or situational, temporary, and permanent. Conditional or situational impairment is the difficulty accessing digital information due to the situation. An example of situational impairment would include noise, poor lighting, distractions, or slow internet speed. Permanent and temporary disabilities are more commonly associated with disability, including visual, hearing, neurological, cognitive, and motor issues. 

    Web Accessibility Benefits for Your Business

    Web accessibility often is thought only to remove barriers for users facing disabilities. However, accessibility can be just as beneficial for your online business as it can its users. 

    Brand Reputation

    Having an accessible website creates an inclusive environment for your users while providing them with more meaningful interaction with your website and brand by building trust and reputation. For instance, Facebook has been praised for ensuring its site accommodates blind users.

    Expanding Market

    Your online business lives and breathes according to your customers. The internet is the best place to reach out to customers and expand your market. By making your website accessible, you will cater to an estimated $1.2 trillion market that the competition could be overlooking. As a result, you are increasing your customer retention and acquisition. 

    Legal Compliance

    Additional, by ensuring your website is accessible, you could mitigate a frivolous ADA lawsuit. One lawsuit is filed every hour either in federal court or in California under the Unruh Act directly violating ADA guidelines. 

    Web Accessibility can be beneficial for both your customers and your business. But what are the guidelines for Web Accessibility, and how are they determined?

    Website Accessibility Guidelines

    Users with a disability can change how they interact with the internet using assistive software. However, how users interact is not always predictable. For instance, an individual with low vision could use a screen reader or screen magnifiers. Ideally, a website’s content should be accessible for all users, including users who require assistive software.  

    The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are the most widely cited international standards for web accessibility. WCAG included specific checkpoints and recommendations based on a principle-based approach to ensure all users can share in the same experience. 

    The Four Principles of Website Accessibility

    WCAG’s principle-based approach is the foundation for producing content and for anyone who wants to use the web. POUR is an acronym that describes accessibility as perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.

    Perceivable

    The state or quality of information and elements on a website has to be capable of being perceived through the senses, leaving nothing left undetectable or invisible. Most users perceive information relying on visuals or sight. Visually impaired users perceive information through sound or touch. For instance, if a user cannot see an image, how can they perceive the content of the article they are reading? Images with well-written alternative text can provide context, allowing them to still perceive the content just as individuals with sight. 

    Operable

    Users must be able to operate a website’s interactive elements. Interactive interface elements such as buttons, navigations, or controls should operate for all users. Users must operate the interface elements by first identifying them and engaging with them. For instance, have you ever tried to click a submit button on a website, and nothing happened? Your interaction with the malfunctioning button has limited your experience or has prevented you from using the website how you intended. 

    Users who cannot interact with elements physically by clicking, or tapping, rely on the tab key, voice commands, or other assistive devices to engage with elements. Websites should not require actions that some users cannot perform. Some users will even not use your website if they cannot function with a keyboard alone. These barriers can limit your website’s reach and create a poor users experience for all users. 

    Understandable

    Websites should be clear and concise in presentation and format, with predictable patterns of use and design. Users should have no issue comprehending the meaning and purpose of the presented information. The “understandable” principle also applies to user interaction elements such as buttons, semantic markups within the code, and other elements to your site. Everything should have a purpose and a meaning behind your site’s content.

    Robust

    Robustness is the ability for content to function reliably using various technologies, including assistive devices. Websites need to provide the same information and interactivity, regardless of access through screen readers, touch screens, or web browsers.

    The lack of these four principles will make your website inaccessible to your users. Therefore, the WCAG recommendations branch out into more detailed levels of accessibility based on these four leading principles. There are three compliance levels: A, AA, and AAA. Each level increases the requirements for web accessibility compliance, grading the website based on the requirements met. 

    Closing

    The internet has become a modern necessity to everyone, offering independence and freedom unavailable through any other medium. We need to start asking how users interact with our websites and break the barriers to create a more inclusive online environment through web accessibility. Web accessibility allows everyone to access the same digital information without hindrance, regardless of impairments or disability. Providing the tools and capability to your user’s aid in your site’s perception, understanding, contribution, navigation, and interaction.  

    As you become aware of the importance of web accessibility and its impact on both your company and your customers, it is essential to know you are not alone. Integrating accessibility can seem intimidating at first, but 216digital  is here to help. We have a passion for web accessibility and ensuring your business is thriving in a continuously growing medium. If you would like more information on web accessibility or how to make your website accessible today, schedule a 15-minute complimentary consultation with our experts or request a free ADA compliance scan today by clicking the link below.

    Request A Free ADA Compliance Scan

    Greg McNeil

    January 13, 2022
    The Benefits of Web Accessibility
    Accessibility, ADA Compliance, ADA Website Compliance, Web Accessibility, Website Accessibility
  • Making the Internet Accessible – The History of Website ADA Compliance

    Making the Internet Accessible – The History of Website ADA Compliance

    ADA website compliance!

    It’s become a popular topic as of late, especially for business owners that have a website. 

    But, it might surprise you to learn that ADA compliance has been around for quite some time. Its current popularity is a direct result of its evolving legal interpretations for what makes a website accessible.

    Below, we’ve plotted the history of Website ADA Compliance and its role in preventing discrimination online.

    (more…)

    Greg McNeil

    July 23, 2020
    Legal Compliance
    ADA Compliance, ADA Lawsuit, ADA non-compliance, ADA Website Compliance
  • Are ADA Overlays a Liability? Here’s What Accessibility Experts Had to Say

    Are ADA Overlays a Liability? Here’s What Accessibility Experts Had to Say

    Lawsuits for websites that are not ADA complaint continue to threaten many internet businesses.

    These companies often turn to accessibility tools to quickly make their sites ADA compliant, thinking they’ll be protected from a lawsuit.

    Accessibility tools (screen overlays and widgets,) such as UserWay, AccessiBe, and AudioEye, work by adapting website content to users’ needs.

    Yet, the levels of accessibility that these tools offer varies from overlay to overlay. To cut through the noise surrounding website accessibility tools, we reached out to several industry experts.

    The ADA Experts

    Kim Testa: The Executive Vice President of the Bureau of Internet Accessibility, industry leaders in eliminating the accessibility digital divide since 2001.

    Eli Freedman: The Senior Partnership Success Manager of accessiBe, a two-part web interface and ai accessibility tool hailed as “World-Leading Web Accessibility Technology.”



    Richard Hunt: Partner, Hunt Huey PLLC. Hunt Huey PLLC has a national disability rights practice that includes defending real estate developers, retailers, restaurants, shopping centers, banks, apartment owners and managers, hotels, single-family developers, homeowners associations and other enterprises in ADA and FHA litigation.

    With their professional insight, we find answers to some of the most pressing questions surrounding the use of website overlays to achieve ADA compliance online.

    1. Are screen overlay products effective for making websites appear to be ADA compliant?
    2. If you install a screen overlay product, will you be less likely or more likely to become the victim of an ADA non-compliance lawsuit?
    3. When using a screen overlay product, can site visitors use their own assistive technology?

    Are screen overlay products effective for making websites appear to be ADA compliant?

    Screen overlay products improve website accessibility by adapting the existing assets of a website to best fit the needs of a disabled user.

    These changes are not automatic and must be triggered by the user before making any visible adjustments to a site. We asked Kim, Eli, and Richard their perceptions of the effectiveness of these accessibility tools.

    Kim Testa|The Bureau of Internet Accessibility

    “In the world of digital inclusiveness and accessibility, overlay products do nothing to ensure the original website code is compliant to WCAG 2.1 A/AA.  

    They work by “recreating” the web pages with “their” code. A script is then inserted into the website’s original code, which in turn hijacks the user’s screen reader and forces them to learn a new technology. In some instances the overlay solutions make the user identify themselves as someone living with a disability. 

    Keep in mind that 99% of people that need assistive technology, have their own and do not need, nor want to be forced to use someone else’s. While overlays may sound like an easy, quick-fix – they do absolutely nothing to remediate the accessibility issues of a website, web-based applications, or native mobile apps.”

    Eli Freedman | accessiBe

    “There has been a lot of buzz in the marketplace discussing why web accessibility overlays are not compliant. We can say for certain that overlay companies pose their solutions as being compliant, when in fact they are not.

    Research shows overlays only handle up to 25% of the WCAG requirements leaving the remaining 75% inaccessible and vulnerable to lawsuits. Why? Those overlays only handle the more simple requirements which are the CSS adjustments of a website. For instance, color contrast ratios, stop animations, larger cursors, font colors and sizing, and more.

    Where accessiBe differs from other layover tools is that it handles both the foreground CSS adjustments and the 75% ‘heavy background lifting’ WCAG 2.1 AA requirements like Aria attributes, assistive technology compatibility, alt tags for images, contextual understanding Ai that assigns all the correct elemental structures like pop-ups, forms, icons, buttons, and website behaviors.”

    Richard Hunt | Hunt Huey PLLC

    ““ADA compliant” isn’t really a meaningful question because there is no objective regulatory or judicial standard for business website ADA compliance (Government websites covered by the Rehabilitation Act have a standard almost identical to WCAG 2.0 AA). In fact, there isn’t even agreement on why a website has to be accessible under the ADA, and until you know why the website needs to be accessible it is impossible to say whether it meets that need.

    We can say that in the broadest terms a website does what the ADA requires if a disabled individual has meaningful access to all the goods and services it offers. That is a subjective standard because it depends on the particular user and their assistive technology. Government agencies, businesses, and lawyers hate subjective standards, so most are using WCAG 2.1 or 2.0 AA as a kind of substitute measure of accessibility. Those standards involve compromises (that’s why there is an AAA standard) which means that even a website that conforms to WCAG 2.1 AA may not be accessible to all users and all assistive technologies.

    The courts have not yet resolved whether the compromise represented by WCAG 2.1 AA is good enough to satisfy the ADA or is perhaps even better than the ADA requires. As for overlays, if you don’t know what the standard is you can hardly claim to meet that standard. A claim that an overlay makes a website ADA compliant will always be false, no matter how good the overlay is.”

    Bonus Tip: To find out if your website is accessible, you can request our accessibility specialists to conduct a free site scan, by clicking here.

    If you install a screen overlay product, will you be less likely or more likely to become the victim of an ADA non-compliance lawsuit?

    For many companies, the purpose of installing an accessibility tool is to protect themselves from an ADA non-compliance lawsuit.

    But how effective are accessibility screen overlays at protecting your business? Here’s what Kim, Eli, and Richard had to say.

    Kim Testa|The Bureau of Internet Accessibility

    “Since overlays really don’t fix the issues, websites are wide open for a lawsuit. There are tools on the market that are used to identify websites that are using overlays and widgets…  

    It’s simple for lawyers to get a list and target the companies using them. There is no magical solution to becoming digitally compliant, the only way to know if a website is compliant is to have a complete audit, both automated testing and manual testing (done by individuals living with disabilities) all done at the same time.”

    Eli Freedman | accessiBe

    “If a website owner has a layover tool that does not handle the ‘heavy background lifting’ as stated above, they are definitely at a greater risk of being served a demand letter or a lawsuit.


    Reports have been received from people in the disabled community in tandem with law firms around the US are grouping together to find websites that are using layovers and targeting them with ADA lawsuits and demand letters as they too know those layovers are not making their websites accessible.”

    Richard Hunt | Hunt Huey PLLC

    “Plaintiff law firms use software scanning tools to look for non-conformance with WCAG 2.1 or 2.0 at success level AA. A product can only reduce the likelihood of a lawsuit if it makes the website look like it is in conformance when scanned by the most commonly used software tools. 

    As I understand it software scanning tools will not ordinarily trigger the accessibility features of an overlay that requires a user choice. Thus, if the website relies on the overlay to correct underlying non-conformities based on a user choice the overlay will not reduce the risk of a lawsuit. 

    It is also important to remember that software scanning tools not only miss errors, they also report false positives. For example, because a scanning tool can’t tell if an image is purely decorative it will mark a decorative image without alt text as a nonconformity even though such images are not required to have alt text under WCAG 2.1 AA. 

    To reduce the risk of litigation any solution must make the website appear perfect or almost so to the most commonly used scanning tools, whether or not that really makes the website easier to use for those with disabilities. As for plaintiffs targeting websites that use layovers, it would not be surprising if it were perceived by the plaintiff’s bar as a profitable enterprise.”

    When using a screen overlay product, can site visitors use their own assistive technology?

    Many disabled internet users have been dealing with accessible websites for a long time. Since most sites aren’t aware of their needs, they’ve had to rely on their own assistive technology to navigate the internet.

    But if a disabled user tries to use their own tools on a site with an accessibility overlay, can both systems communicate with each other?

    Kim Testa| The Bureau of Internet Accessibility

    “Yes, but as [I] stated earlier, a user may come to the website with their own assistive technology but, upon entering the site, the script will take over and force the visitor to use the overlay technology, making the user abandon their own, known assistive technology.  

    Many times when this happens the user will leave the site and never return. Companies are looking to acquire new visitors not frustrate them to the point that they leave. ”

    Eli Freedman | accessiBe

    “In most cases, yes they can, however, that does not mean that it will be completely compatible with all assistive technologies like screen readers or keyboard navigation only.

    In addition, there are certain layover tools that have screen readers embedded within their ‘solutions’ which is purely a marketing gimmick. This is actually counterproductive since those with disabilities have their own assistive technologies and the embedded screen reader’s conflict with their own technologies.”

    Richard Hunt | Hunt Huey PLLC

    “Whether a particular overlay is compatible with any particular assistive technology is not within my technical expertise. What I can say is that in general, the ADA requires that any facility be accessible to disabled individuals as they come to it; that is, with whatever technology they are accustomed to using. You can’t tell a wheelchair user, for example, that they need to switch to a mobility scooter to enter your store. 

    A similar principle exists in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines; that is, they are intended to create accessibility solutions that do not depend on the user’s choice of assistive technology to the extent that is possible. An overlay that is incompatible with the most commonly used assistive technologies, and in particular with the most popular screen readers, won’t be regarded as improving the accessibility of a website for purposes of the ADA. 

    There may be some assistive technologies so old or so rare that they do not have to be accommodated, but to satisfy the ADA an overlay must work seamlessly with the most commonly used assistive technologies.”

    Now it’s Your Turn

    At this point, you might be thinking, “Do I need an accessibility screen overlay for my website?” 

    As you just learned from experts, while you can use a screen overlay to make your website appear more accessible, it’s only helpful to a certain extent.

    Keep in mind that whether or not you use an accessibility overlay, there is still some manual remediation you’ll need to do within your website’s code.

    Before installing or remediating anything on your own, you should know if your website is ADA compliant. Request a free ADA compliance scan today by clicking the link below.

    Request A Free ADA Compliance Scan

    After our ADA specialists scan your site you’ll have the expert information needed to proceed with improving your website’s accessibility.

    As the environment around website accessibility continues to evolve, we want your business protected from an ADA lawsuit.

    Greg McNeil

    May 20, 2020
    Legal Compliance
    ADA Compliance, ADA Lawsuit, ADA non-compliance, Website Accessibility, Website Accessibility Tools
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