What Does Being ADA Compliant ACTUALLY Mean?
What Does Being ADA Compliant ACTUALLY Mean?
Picture how you arrived at this blog; you may have opened an email or were scrolling through social media, then clicked on a link which took you here. Quick and easy right?
Now imagine doing the same navigation but without the ability to see or use a mouse. Would you be able to get to this blog the same way? Probably not. But millions of people with visual and motor impairments need to navigate websites each day. This is one of the reasons the ADA was developed.
The Americans with Disabilities Act
The Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, was created to protect people with disabilities from discrimination and offer them reasonable accessibility. Many countries outside the US, including Canada, have similar laws. The ADA guarantees people with disabilities the same freedoms and opportunities as everyone else. These guarantees include the ability to access services, protection against discrimination in seeking employment, and much more.
What does this mean for websites?
Although websites did not exist in 1990 when the ADA was created, they are interpreted to fall under ADA Title 3. This section states that any place of business that serves the public must be accessible to those with disabilities. This used to mean brick-and-mortar locations like hotels, restaurants, and retail stores, but websites have also been placed under this umbrella as they are places that accommodate the public for goods and services.
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How does ADA affect funeral home websites?
As mentioned above, websites fall under ADA, meaning your funeral home’s website must comply with these standards. The easiest way to make sure your website is more compliant with ADA is to follow Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (or WCAG), specifically level AA. This means your website must be accessible to at least most users.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
Level A
Your website is accessible to some users.
Level AA
Your website is accessible to almost all users.
The 4 Core Accessibility Principles
To meet level AA, WCAG offers 4 principles to help you determine whether your website is accessible to almost all users. Your website must be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. Following these 4 Principles will set your website up to be more ADA compliant.
What happens if you don’t comply?
There are 3 ways your business can be affected if you do not comply with the ADA.
- Fines: Government fines can be up to $75,000 for the first violation and increase to a maximum of $150,000 for each additional violation.
- Lawsuits: Whether from people with disabilities or from law firms, you can get sued for not providing adequate accommodations to disabled users.
- Reputation: Serious ADA violations become public record, and will damage the image and reputation of your funeral home
For example, retail giant Amazon was hit with a website ADA lawsuit in 2018. The eCommerce platform was sued over the inability to use screen readers on their website, which caused accessibility barriers to users who are visually impaired. The lawsuit resulted in Amazon paying out a settlement.
Tribute Accessibility: Robust ADA compliance
We at Tribute are pleased to now offer ADA compliance tools through Tribute Accessibility, powered by UserWay. Tribute Technology delivers this innovative product through its network of Premier Partners including leading providers such as FrontRunner Professional, MKJ Marketing, SRS Computing, Funeral Tech, CFS, and others. Tribute Accessibility ADA compliance solutions include ADA website audits, accessibility widgets, and more. Contact us to learn how we can help your funeral home’s website become more ADA compliant.
