SEO and accessibility are both about making sure the user has a positive experience. However, the business case for investing in SEO is easier to understand than the case for improving your site’s accessibility.
Although it may not be immediately apparent, it is essential for your business and your audience to improve the accessibility of your website. If your site is not accessible, you risk losing potential customers who require assistive technologies to use the internet, as well as legal action.
The potential penalties
Title III of the ADA requires places of public accommodation and commercial facilities to make sure that their websites comply with ADA standards, even though websites are not specifically mentioned in the ADA. From what search professionals have said in interviews for this article, it seems that a lot of people who file lawsuits against companies whose websites are not accessible believe that the law guarantees accessibility for websites, or that companies will usually try to settle out of court rather than go to trial. The most anyone can be fined for a first violation of title III is $75,000, and subsequent violations can be fined up to $150,000.
The amount of money a business can be fined for not following the law varies greatly. Jessica, an SEO based in Minnesota who wished to remain anonymous, told Search Engine Land that she had a client who was fined $10,000. They were also told that if they failed to fix the problem by the time someone checked again, they would be fined $50,000 with no questions asked.
According to Eric Wu, VP of product growth at Honey, the legal teams are mostly looking for a settlement, referring to a previous client’s case. He said that in this case, the fine was $200 per person impacted, but fine limits can vary from state to state. The legal team who filed the lawsuit claimed that 250 people were impacted.
There was no specific amount of money that was being asked for in the lawsuit, said Jackson Whelan, principal at Terrier Tenacity Design & Marketing. The amount of money would have been decided by a court if the case had gone to court. Whelan also said that it seems like the goal of the lawsuit was to get businesses to agree to a settlement outside of court.
Law firms may be preying on sites with poor accessibility
Although businesses might assume that lawsuits are filed by end-users, marketers who have experienced such lawsuits say that this is not always the case. According to these marketers, businesses may have a more hidden motive for filing lawsuits.
Noah Learner stated that he has worked with four different bike shops who have all been sued by the law firm mentioned in the article. He went on to say that the letters sent to each shop were so closely related in both language and content, that had it not been for the mention of accessibility, his clients would have assumed the letters were spam.
Although it is admirable to push for increased accessibility, it seems that some lawyers are taking advantage of the situation by filing lawsuits. Whelan said that one customer was part of a group of 50 businesses who were sued by the same person, even though that person had never been to the restaurant or tried to purchase anything. This could happen to any business, not just those that are frequented by the general public.
I’ve been told that there arelaw firms that work with sight-impaired people, who scan the internet for sites that aren’t accessible to them. They then file a lawsuit. I had a client who was sued, and the products they mentioned in the lawsuit were in a completely different category than what my client sold. Another SEO professional told me that the lawyer in the case used an automated tool to find ADA issues on the site as part of a class-action lawsuit.
Businesses are being sued for not having accessible websites, but it is expensive for them to make their sites accessible and they may not be able to afford it. These lawsuits are being filed by attorneys who want to get a quick settlement, rather than make sure businesses are accessible to everyone.
Shuman, who works to ensure compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, said that while businesses should make every effort to meet the law’s requirements, the ADA community does not support penalizing those who fall short.
Is your website at risk for an ADA accessibility lawsuit? If your website is not accessible to people with disabilities, you may be at risk for an ADA accessibility lawsuit.
What sites can get sued over
Although the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) does not explicitly state what features make a website accessible, the ambiguity can be used to one’s advantage in court. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has compiled a list of common mistakes that businesses and individuals can reference to make sure their website meets the WCAG 2.0 standards for accessibility.
The marketers that spoke to Search Engine Land for this article cited the following factors as part of the lawsuits their clients faced:
- A drop-down menu wasn’t fully keyboard-accessible due to some JavaScript.
- Insufficient text/background contrast.
- Site text was not scaleable.
- Image alt text wasn’t unique.
- Menu navigation did not properly support screen readers.
- There were no “skip navigation” options for screen readers.
- Password requirements did not support screen readers.
- Actions, like adding a product to cart, weren’t designed to support screen readers.
- PDF content was not able to be read in HTML format.
- Phone number on the website lacked a full description, potentially barring users from understanding what the number is for.
- Site information, such as the company address and hours of operation, were not labeled.
RELATED: 10 principles of digital accessibility for modern marketers
2018: DOJ letter to Congress (sort of) clarifies its stance on websites and the ADA.
We saw a wave of website accessibility lawsuits against companies in the mid 2010s. For example, Nike was sued in 2017 for running websites that did not cater to visually impaired users.Five Guys was sued for the same reason in 2017.
This is the first time a company has gone to trial over an inaccessibility issue on their website. The district court ruled that the website was not accessible to visually impaired users and that it was covered under Title III because the website was integrated with the physical stores.
The DOJ recently announced its position on the ADA and websites. Here’s a snippet from the letter to Congress:
” The Department stated that the ADA applies to public accommodations’ websites over 20 years ago. This is consistent with the ADA’s title III requirement that the goods, services, privileges, or activities provided by places of public accommodation be equally accessible to people with disabilities.
The letter is basically saying that public places of accommodation, such as shops and hotels, should make their websites and apps accessible, but if they don’t, you can’t sue them for noncompliance if their physical structures are compliant.
The judge overturned the ruling against Winn-Dixie because they believed that websites aren’t covered under the ADA. It’s not surprising that the ruling was overturned considering the DOJ’s stance on web accessibility. This is also the reason why many lawsuits have been lost by plaintiffs.
2018: WCAG 2.1 updates success criteria for mobile.
While the WCAG already included guidance for mobile accessibility, its guidelines got another update as smartphones became the predominant device used to access the web. WCAG 2.1 addresses matters related to the following:
- Screen orientation
- Input field purpose
- Content reflow
- Text spacing
- Content on hover or focus
- Mobile keyboard accessibility
- Target size
- And more
As of 2018, the WCAG 2.1 standard is the recommended reference for web accessibility guidelines. If your web design process doesn’t take into account these guidelines for mobile accessibility, it’s time to make some changes.
2017-2020: 8K+ digital accessibility lawsuits filed in federal courts.
The American Bar Association says that there were more than 8,000 digital accessibility lawsuits filed in federal courts. They say that there have been vastly more lawsuits at the state level, but they don’t receive as much attention because they often get resolved before they are filed.
This is an increase from previous years, where they saw around 8,000 lawsuits. The ABA now sees over 10,000 lawsuits relating to the Americans with Disabilities Act every year. This is approximately a fifth of all lawsuits filed under ADA Title III. There has been an increase from years past, where roughly 8,000 lawsuits were filed.
The ABA reports that it is usually more costly to go to court over an accessibility issue than it is to simply make the necessary changes to one’s website or app.
The question is why would any organization take the risk of their site or app not being accessible, especially if they have a physical location as well. It might seem like a worth while gamble for smaller businesses, but for larger organizations that have the money to spend on making a fully accessible website, it just makes sense to include it in the initial build.
2020: The Online Accessibility Act is introduced to the House of Representatives.
Representative Budd—the recipient of the 2018 DOJ letter—sponsored a bill in 2020 called The Online Accessibility Act. Here’s the gist of the bill:
” This bill prevents people with disabilities from being left out of or denied the full benefits of using a website or application, or from being discriminated against by the private owner or operator of such a website or application.
If you haven’t heard of the bill, it’s because nothing happened with it in 2020. However, this doesn’t mean that Budd and other supporters in Congress of digital accessibility completely forgot about it.
The bill was reintroduced in February 2021. If passed, it would remove the DOJ from issuing guidance and give the power to the U.S. Access Board, which would create official standards.
To the best of my knowledge, the bill has not progressed, which is unfortunate. The WCAG is a helpful resource for web designers and developers as they create products for the internet, but there is no enforcement of these guidelines. There is also not much of a consequence for those who choose to ignore them.
2022: Google says accessibility isn’t a ranking signal.
Mueller’s answer to the question was that “In general, we don’t use website accessibility as a explicit ranking signal.” However, Mueller does say that if your website is accessible, it may indirectly impact your ranking. Someone recently asked Google’s John Mueller whether or not accessibility is a ranking factor in Google search results. This is because the 2021 Core Web Vitals update included Accessibility as one of the four scoring factors. Mueller’s answer to the question was that “In general, we don’t use website accessibility as a explicit ranking signal.” However, Mueller does say that if your website is accessible, it may indirectly impact your ranking.
According to Mueller:
I think it is important for websites to be accessible because if they are not people will not want to use them or recommend them to others. However, being accessible is not something that directly affects how well a website ranks in search results.
Mueller stated that the main problem is that it is difficult to measure how accessible a website is. He said that if they can find a way to better assess accessibility, then Google may consider using it as a ranking signal in the future. As it stands however, it does not seem to have much of an impact other than creating difficulties for some users.
Even though it may not seem like a big deal, accessibility is something to think about. It’s important enough that Google even mentioned it in one of its most recent updates. Even if there’s no easy way to compare how accessible one website is compared to another, it’s still a significant issue overall.
If there are a billion people in the world who are disabled, the impact of an inaccessible site or app on them is significant. Additionally, those who are not disabled can also be impacted by inaccessibility; for example, someone who doesn’t have headphones and is trying to read your site’s articles on the subway but is being hindered by auto-playing video ads.
We understand what is necessary to make a UI accessible, as well as the tools and standards required to do so. There is no excuse for inaccessibility – whether it makes a website unusable or simply inconvenient – in today’s day and age.
Wrapping Up
I realize this could be seen as a negative, but it’s part of the reason I brought up the history of physical accessibility legislation. It took 30 years for the country to be fully accessible, and we’re still not perfect.
The author is saying that there is no need to wait for laws or penalties to be put in place in order to make the web more accessible. The W3C, WAI and WCAG 2.0/2.1 standards provide all of the guidelines that are needed to create a better web for everyone.
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