If a dealership gets sued and or fined for not being ADA compliant, and the OEM forces the dealership to choose between six companies but none of the six build ADA compliant websites, however the web developer claims their sites are ADA compliant when they are not, who is responsible?
The dealership, is responsible for ensuring its website is accessible. Even if an OEM or a third‐party vendor is involved, the legal burden falls on the business.
According to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), a staggering 98% of U.S.-based web pages are not legally accessible to individuals with disabilities. This data is highlighted in the Web Accessibility Annual Report, which analyzed over 10 million web pages.
On average, each page contains 56.8 accessibility errors.
Fines for accessibility violations can reach up to $5,000 per individual issue, while lawsuits can result in damages of $100,000 or more. Businesses may face repeated fines and lawsuits until their websites are brought into compliance.
Lawsuits related to non-compliant websites have been steadily increasing. Business owners are legally responsible for ensuring their websites meet ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) standards.
And accessible websites with a good user experience tend to rank higher because they are easier to crawl and provide a better user experience, which Google values.
In the U.S., there are over 61 million adults with disabilities, representing approximately 26% of the adult population, or 1 in 4 adults.
Failure to make a website ADA-compliant means potentially losing access to this large demographic.
As states seek additional revenue sources, ADA fines have become a prominent option. For instance, Vaughan & Associates reported in 2018 that the Central District of Los Angeles alone was handling around 80 cases per week, with 300 to 350 federal court cases per month, in addition to state cases.
However web developers would rather point their clients towards overlays and plugins, than to code the site correctly.
Just insert some code and you're done!
When you add code to your site it slows the site down!
In addition to slowing the site down the more code you add the more likely it is that some piece of that code could be used to hack your site.
Overlays give a false sense of security.
However, since this code is on a third party site and needs some type of input from the user to be activated ... your already not treating the person with a disability the same as the person without the disability.
Creating a good web experience means fixing the code, validating it, and making it ADA compliant.
These plugins and overlays always create a bad user experience because they always slow a site down.
Overlays are scripts hosted on third-party sites.
If their site is slow to load, off line or any number of problems you have no control over it and your site isn't going to work correctly.
And because website speed is a ranking factor it's going to affect your rankings, sales, and traffic.
And 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.
However rebuilding their website and making it ADA compliant isn’t even an option for the dealership!
The dealership, is responsible for ensuring its website is accessible. Even if an OEM or a third‐party vendor is involved, the legal burden falls on the business.
According to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), a staggering 98% of U.S.-based web pages are not legally accessible to individuals with disabilities. This data is highlighted in the Web Accessibility Annual Report, which analyzed over 10 million web pages.
On average, each page contains 56.8 accessibility errors.
Fines for accessibility violations can reach up to $5,000 per individual issue, while lawsuits can result in damages of $100,000 or more. Businesses may face repeated fines and lawsuits until their websites are brought into compliance.
Lawsuits related to non-compliant websites have been steadily increasing. Business owners are legally responsible for ensuring their websites meet ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) standards.
And accessible websites with a good user experience tend to rank higher because they are easier to crawl and provide a better user experience, which Google values.
In the U.S., there are over 61 million adults with disabilities, representing approximately 26% of the adult population, or 1 in 4 adults.
Failure to make a website ADA-compliant means potentially losing access to this large demographic.
As states seek additional revenue sources, ADA fines have become a prominent option. For instance, Vaughan & Associates reported in 2018 that the Central District of Los Angeles alone was handling around 80 cases per week, with 300 to 350 federal court cases per month, in addition to state cases.
However web developers would rather point their clients towards overlays and plugins, than to code the site correctly.
Just insert some code and you're done!
The Problem With Overlays & Plugins!
To start with the single most important thing when making a website visible is content and page speed.When you add code to your site it slows the site down!
In addition to slowing the site down the more code you add the more likely it is that some piece of that code could be used to hack your site.
Do accessibility overlays make a website compliant?
No!Overlays give a false sense of security.
Accessibility issues with overlays.
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.Accessibility overlays create problems.
The reason for the law is to give everyone equal access to your services and products.However, since this code is on a third party site and needs some type of input from the user to be activated ... your already not treating the person with a disability the same as the person without the disability.
Creating a good web experience means fixing the code, validating it, and making it ADA compliant.
Accessibility overlays hurt website performance
Plugins and overlays add friction to the user experience that wouldn't be there had the site been coded correctly.These plugins and overlays always create a bad user experience because they always slow a site down.
Overlays are scripts hosted on third-party sites.
If their site is slow to load, off line or any number of problems you have no control over it and your site isn't going to work correctly.
And because website speed is a ranking factor it's going to affect your rankings, sales, and traffic.
And ad blockers sometimes block overlays.
Rebuilding Your Website to Be ADA Compliant
Building and launching a website can be expensive.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.
However rebuilding their website and making it ADA compliant isn’t even an option for the dealership!
