What is ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliance?
ADA compliance is adherence to the Americans with Disabilities Act, a federal law prohibiting discrimination against people with disabilities in areas like employment, public accommodations, and government services. Compliance requires businesses to make their physical spaces and digital platforms accessible and to provide reasonable accommodations, such as making modifications to policies or providing communication aids. Failure to comply can result in legal action, fines, and damage to a business’s reputation and revenue.
Key Aspects of ADA Compliance:
Reasonable Accommodations: Businesses and organizations must provide reasonable modifications to policies, practices, and procedures to ensure accessibility.
Websites, applications, documents, and other electronic information must be accessible to people with disabilities, including those with impairments to vision, hearing, and mobility.
These things look like, but are not limited to:
- Ensuring screen readers (software that reads the display on a screen for blind or low-vision users) can properly navigate the site.
- That images/text can be seen clearly throughout the site for those with color-blindness or low-vision.
- That the site is easily navigable by keyboard for those with physical impairments.
- Proper Heading hierarchy is maintained across the site to ensure readability standards are met.
What are the consequences of Non-Compliance?
If an organization is found non-compliant with the ADA, the penalties can be substantial. Under 42 U.S.C. § 12188, the DOJ can sue a non-compliant business, seeking injunctions to compel compliance. Besides injunctive relief, businesses may also face civil penalties. For a first violation, the fines can reach up to $75,000, while subsequent violations can result in penalties of up to $150,000. Additionally, businesses may be ordered to pay compensatory damages to the aggrieved parties, cover attorney fees, and implement corrective actions to bring the website into compliance.
Recommended Reading:
- Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability; Accessibility of Web Information and Services of State and Local Government Entities
Description: This is the official rule for ADA compliance posted on the Federal Register of the National Archives.
Summary: The Department of Justice (“Department”) issues its final rule revising the regulation implementing title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) to establish specific requirements, including the adoption of specific technical standards, for making accessible the services, programs, and activities offered by State and local government entities to the public through the web and mobile applications (“apps”). - DOJ Introductory fact sheet on ADA Web Compliance
Description: This fact sheet gives a summary of the DOJ rule on ADA Compliance. “The summary is designed to provide introductory information about the rule’s requirements, particularly for people who may not have a legal background.” - Highlights of the Requirements in the Rule:
- Requirement: The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Version 2.1, Level AA is the technical standard for state and local governments’ web content and mobile apps.
- Requirement: State and local governments’ web content usually needs to meet WCAG 2.1, Level AA.
- Requirement: State and local governments’ mobile apps usually need to meet WCAG 2.1, Level AA
Making sure your site is ADA compliant:
Ensuring your website and apps are ADA Compliant is an ongoing effort– and the responsibility to ensure ADA compliance does not begin and end with your organization’s web and application developers. Building your site to be ADA Compliant from the beginning is only the first step. Once the site or app is live, anyone providing and publishing content for the website needs to follow ADA guidelines. That includes (but is not limited to):
- Ensuring PDFs hosted on the website are ADA compliant
- Adding descriptive ALT text to images
- Adhering to proper rules for semantic HTML (eg. following the correct document structure for headings, paragraphs, tables, etc.)
Steps for making your website compliant:
- Conduct an ADA Compliance Audit: You can test your website yourself or hire a consultant to perform a thorough review of your site. In either case, testing your site will require a combination of compliance auditing tools and manual testing.
- Auditing tools
- Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools List (w3.org)
- Accessibility Testing Tools and Practices (harvard.edu)
- Accessibility – Common web accessibility testing tools (tamu.edu)
- Auditing tools
- Evaluate the results
- Fix non-compliance issues and educate content managers on ADA requirements
- Test again and repeat the process as needed