Not everyone is fortunate when it comes to health. Today, disability is one of the most common health challenges across the globe.

Almost 19% of the Americans suffer from some form of physical and / or mental limitation which prevents them from performing digital chores efficiently. ADA or The Americans with Disability Act is the standard for providing digital access to people belonging to this category.

While ADA is a civil law wherein it emphasizes the importance of providing equal opportunities to the disabled folks in all walks of life, there is another accessibility guidelines set by the World Wide Web Consortium called WCAG which incidentally means “The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines”.

It has developed a set of rules for improving web accessibility for those suffering from physical, mental and hearing impairments by incorporating intuitive assistive technologies which are not just robust but scalable too. It is not just the website developers who are responsible for following these norms, even the owners are equally liable.

Interestingly, The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines has three levels of conformance, namely - AA, AA and AAA. This simply means that “A” grade webpage or digital app has the lowest conformance standard while “AAA” the highest. Some of the existing digital properties such as websites, shopping portals and virtual computing systems lack these virtues, and therefore prone to lawsuits by frustrated individuals / groups and organizations. This could result in severe financial and brand reprimand, and the losses could be huge.

Dozens of websites have been sued for non-compliancy, including celebrities and renowned brands, especially those who have multiple franchisees. A minimal protection has been offered to digital properties, the ones which have not been tweaked after January 18, 2018. However, those which have been modified after the said date cannot escape from lawsuit filed by disgruntled, disabled user.

Netlynx Technologies offers no-cost evaluation of your existing web property such as business website, ecommerce portal or digital application / software. We will audit your digital presence / product and offer multiple avenues to make it ADA / WCAG compliant or improve its score / grade by incorporating further tweaks. This includes layout changes, breadcrumb improvements, adding video transcripts and text alternative for images for the entire site. We will make sure your web properties are screen reader friendly.

Typically, we offer two options.

1. Tweak your existing web property and make it ADA / WCAG compliant.

2. Start from the scratch.

We recommend the second option only when your website / application / software is beyond the scope of tweaking and making it compliant using traditional tools and techniques or when it makes more sense to build a new one rather than restructuring the existing version.

Either way, business organizations / brand managers / web service providers need to understand the gravity of not following accessibility guidelines. ADA / WCAG strictures cannot be avoided. Even a single lawsuit can set you back by thousands of dollars. In such a scenario redressing your website is a logical and cheaper option. It also helps your business / software from SEO point of view. Here are some of the benefits.

1. Increased web traffic. As mentioned earlier, millions of disabled folks have a tough time accessing web platforms due to nonconformance of accessibility guidelines. Most of them either never return or boycott such brands.

2. Screen reader compatibility will ensure your business webpages get crawled and appreciated by people and search engines. It will boost your page authority and increase brand loyalty.

3. Protection from financial backlash / lawsuit. This single advantage is good enough to turn your online business presence into ADA / WCAG friendly

Call or mail us for a free evaluation of your web property. We are responsive, approachable and affordable.