What Is An ADA Website Accessibility Violation?
Every business is required to ensure that its products and services are accessible to those who are disabled. To ensure that this is the case, a business website must also be accessible.
The key components of web accessibility for disabled individuals are as follows:
-Perceivable.
-Operable.
-Understandable.
-Robust.
A website that is all of those things is one that anyone can access and understand, even if they require assistive technologies.
Just as an example, if a website cannot be perceived by those who are blind – no text-to-audio functionality, for example – then that website violates the ADA’s standards, allowing the business that runs the website to be sued.
Given this fact, it is of great importance that your website is perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. If your website is not those things – or, even if it is – and you’ve been sued, you must be aware of the most substantive defenses you can use to protect your business.
3 Key Defenses For An ADA Website Accessibility Violation
Defense 01: Your Website Is Not, In Fact, Discriminatory
Even though the ADA requires every website to meet certain accessibility requirements, there is no legal code within the ADA that requires every website to be accessible to every person with every conceivable disability.
Just as an example, if your website is accessible to most people – assistive technologies are supported, and other basic requirements are met – then it can be demonstrated that your website is not, in fact, discriminatory.
Someone may not be able to access your website, but as long as most people can, you are not guilty of an ADA website accessibility violation.
Defense 02: The Claim Is Not Valid
A discrimination claim must meet certain requirements. Sometimes, one of these requirements is that the website’s lack of accessibility causes harm.
If the person who filed the discrimination claim cannot prove that any harm occurred, then it is possible their claim will be thrown out, as it is invalid.
Even though this strategy can work, it is still of great importance that a website satisfies the ADA’s accessibility requirements in the event that other lawsuits arise.
Defense 03: The Accommodation Would Create An Undue Burden
Every website must satisfy specific accessibility requirements. But, sometimes, this isn’t possible, and so long as “reasonable accommodations” are met, the business has done its job.
Given the fact outlined above, if making a website accessible for a particular individual would create an undue burden on that business, then this serves as a reasonable defense for not doing so.
