Digital accessibility is becoming an increasingly important issue for business owners. Now that people are more conscious of matters surrounding diversity and inclusion in our global society, many have turned their attention to the web and its overall lack of inclusiveness. According to one study, almost 98.1 percent of the top one million homepages on the internet exhibit detectable WCAG 2.1 failures.
The result is that businesses spend billions of dollars each year on legal fees. According to one estimate from the Bureau of Internet Accessibility, the average cost of an ADA lawsuit is around $25,000 for businesses (once all the legal fees and mandatory audits have been accounted for).
ADA lawsuits are on the rise
A $25,000 legal bill would be too much to bear for most small to medium-sized businesses. Yet, if you still feel like you might want to take your chances by not upgrading your website and making it more accessible, you may reconsider. That’s because we are currently witnessing record high lawsuits year on year.
According to the data, there were at least 11,452 federal filings in 2021, an all-time high. In addition, when last year’s data were compared to 2013, there was a 320 percent increase in ADA Title III cases, and things certainly don’t appear to be slowing down any time soon. So, what can you do to reduce your risk of becoming another one of these statistics? Fortunately, web accessibility company accessiBe offers a simple and affordable way to improve the accessibility of your website, and it requires minimal effort on your behalf.
Introducing accessiBe
accessiBe is a global pioneer in automated web accessibility solutions. Their main objective is to make the entire internet accessible by 2025 so that everyone, regardless of their level of disability, can experience what it offers. To do this, the team developed a groundbreaking solution that automates web accessibility.
The accessibility interface
Their accessibility interface enables each visitor to personalize your website’s design and user interface to their specific needs. For example, users can select a preloaded disability profile, such as “ADHD Friendly Profile,” and activate all applicable alterations. In addition to the profiles, users can enable individual customizations such as increasing font sizes, changing color contrasts, halting animations, etc. This hands over complete control to the user and allows them to configure your site to best suit their needs.
AI-powered processes
accessiBe’s AI machine learning technology employs contextual understanding and computer vision to meet the complicated back-end requirements required for screen reader and keyboard navigation modifications. The machine learning algorithm visually links elements and actions to millions of previous encounters so that it may learn from context what elements do and their role on the page.
The essential alterations are implemented automatically to convey information contextually to users who rely on assistive software, such as screen readers. Regardless of disability type, all users should be able to understand what is on the screen and the purpose of each element, precisely as it was intended initially. Moreover, the AI also scans for new and revised content to fix every 24 hours. Once accessiBe is installed on your website, you won’t need to worry about manually correcting and updating new content.
Are you already facing an ADA lawsuit?
If you already find yourself facing ADA litigation proceedings, accessiBe may still be able to offer assistance. Their litigation support package provides advice and assistance to customers with claims brought against them. Here are some core features of the support package:
- A complete accessibility statement and evidence of monthly compliance audits (this should be enough to get most cases thrown out).
- Documentation and testing from the accessiBe R&D team, including line-by-line assessment and responses to each accessibility complaint
- Advice giving legal-vetted response recommendations for your specific situation
- The accessiBe team will perform two independent 3rd party audits.
- Ongoing support from the accessiBe team throughout the court case
It’s good to know that assistance is available when you find yourself on the wrong end of a lawsuit.
This content has been sponsored by accessiBe.
