Don’t make this mistake that could cost your business big time
I recently learned from one of my North Carolina-based small business clients that their company has been sued for not having an ADA compliant website on behalf of an individual with a disability in another state. The suit has targeted hundreds of companies, both large and small.
The entrepreneur was heartbroken. They run a mission-driven organization and they honestly didn’t know that their website wasn’t accessible. They’ve consulted with a lawyer that specializes in these cases and were advised that this lawsuit could cost them between $20k — $70k+.
The entrepreneur has reached out to their commercial insurance provider and is hoping that they are properly insured, so they will not be stuck footing the entire bill.
When it comes to your business: having an accessible website isn’t just a matter of liability… it’s the right thing to do AND it’s strategic:
Nearly 1 in 5 people in the US have a disability.
To reach more potential customers it’s valuable to incorporate accessibility into all aspects of your business.
Here are 4 steps to protect your business and make it more accessible:
1. To protect yourself, make sure your business is properly insured.
The most effective way to do this is to speak to a commercial insurance broker.
I fully recognize that insurance isn’t the most fun thing to navigate, but making sure your business is properly protected is an important part of your overall strategy. Your business needs to be able to survive an unexpected lawsuit.
2. Make sure your website is ADA compliant.
For the technical piece — either educate yourself on WCAG guidelines or consider enlisting the support of a website accessibility expert to ensure your site is compliant. If you haven’t built your website yet, be sure to build it either with a web developer that understands web accessibility or use a template that’s accessible.
- Unity Web Agency is a Certified B Corp that specializes in creating accessible WordPress websites. They’ve created this free guide on website accessibility for writers and marketers.
- The company experiencing the lawsuit has a Squarespace site and is working with Square ADA to make their website complaint and monitor it every month as the accessibility standards change.
- Courtesy Tyler Puckett, the founder of Square ADA: here are several free evaluation tools that business owners can use to get a snapshot of their website’s accessibility and learn what issues need to be fixed. Square ADA has built their own evaluation tool specifically for Squarespace websites and WAVE is also a very reputable tool that works for any site on any platform.
- If you have a Wix website, here is Wix’s overview of how to create an accessible website. They also have a platform where you can hire a Wix Accessibility partner.
- LCI Tech is one of the only firms that employ Americans with disabilities to provide digital accessibility services. They provide accessibility testing, usability testing, accessibility training, and accessibility monitoring services. The LCI Tech team is able to perform a website accessibility audit and create a performance report that will reflect your website’s true accessibility and give you a plan for improvement that you can follow.
3. Add an Accessibility Statement to your website
To demonstrate your commitment to accessibility and provide a way for people with disabilities to reach out with any concerns, consider adding an accessibility statement to your website. Here is a resource created by the Web Accessibility Initiative created to help you develop a statement.
As an example, here is the Accessibility Commitment we posted on the Noel & Co. website about page:
Noel & Co. is committed to ensuring digital accessibility for people with disabilities. We are continually improving the user experience for everyone and applying the relevant accessibility standards.
This is one of the main reasons why we chose to work with Unity Web Agency, which is a mission-driven company committed to building websites that are truly accessible.
We welcome your feedback on the accessibility of this website. Please let us know if you encounter accessibility barriers by sending an email to Christina@noelandco.io.
4. Continue to maintain web accessibility standards & adopt accessibility practices across all business marketing.
To ensure your website stays accessible, continue to:
- Monitor WCAG guidelines
- Use Alternative (Alt) Text for images (which can also be great for SEO 👌)
- When you are linking to someplace outside of your website, write a descriptive link.
Erin Perkins, a deaf entrepreneur, accessibility advocate, and founder of Mabely Q has pulled together these awesome resources to help small business owners make their services more accessible. Erin is also available to hire as a consultant if you’d like hands-on support.
Incorporating accessibility in all aspects of your business will ultimately enhance your marketing content and all it to reach more people.
Take things one step at a time and before you know it, you’ll get there… which is good for your business AND the world.
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