Hey, so you are planning to build a website for your business and join in the trend of online technology, or do you already have one running? That’s cool. Congratulations to you. But then, do you know about the ADA compliance law? You definitely should know about it now, or you might just be landing yourself in huge trouble soon enough.
Something else you really should know is that you might be at the risk of coughing out about $7500 as a fine for not making your website ADA compliant. And that’s just for the first offense. As a matter of fact, according to Digital Authority, a lot of famous companies have come under the axe for not making their website ADA compliant.
Companies like Ace Hardware, Reebok, Bed Bath and Beyond, Amazon, Estee Lauder, Patagonia, and many more have all faced one or more lawsuits in the past few years for not being ADA compliant. And only last week, Beyonce’s own website was sued for not being ADA compliant by a blind woman.
So, What Does ADA Compliance Mean?
ADA which stands for Americans with Disabilities Act is American legislation that was passed in 1990 to ensure that people with disabilities are presented with the same daily opportunities as everyone else.
According to the law in question, businesses that serve the public must make sure that their facilities accommodate people with various disabilities as much as it accommodates everyone else.
This also applies to business sites and mobile apps too. In essence, this law is in place to make sure that your website is accessible to people with disabilities like vision impairment, hearing deficiencies, and physical handicaps.
If you haven’t been aware of this until now, you are not alone as many other top companies are oblivious of it too. This ADA requirement has not been really popular until recent times when its enforcement started becoming more serious. However, the implementation and enforcement of this law have been quite rapid in recent times and you might very soon be caught in the web if you do not act fast now.
Beyond avoiding the penalties of not making your website ADA compliant, however, there are quite a number of other advantages open to your website for being ADA compliant. Some of them are:
It Boosts Your Search Engine Optimization Efforts
Of course, if you want to build a website for your business or you have one running already, no matter your business niche, one of your topmost priorities should be search engine optimization. There are very many reasons to make your website search engine optimized, from increasing your ranking in search engine results to opening up better business prospects for you and many more.
If your website is able to meet the ADA Web Content Guidelines, it will most probably appeal more to search engines, screen readers, and general users too. This definitely will affect your site positively and enhance the results of your SEO efforts. Thus, it is crucial that you should consider alternative image text, video transcripts and meta-tagging in your web development plan. It is essential that your web pages are optimized so as to increase visibility and skyrocket the engagement around the community.
It Helps To Increase Your Target Audience
Just so you know, your business might just be missing out on many millions of potential customers, maybe even up to 50 million who are disabled in one way or another if the website is not ADA compliant. This is because these people lack the capacity to access the information on your site, seeing that it is not built to support them.
More, many of these disabled people might be truly interested in your products or services but because of their inability to get access to your site or navigate through it to find the particular services or goods they want and buy or even contact you. Because of this, they might turn to your competitors that have made their website ADA compliant.
It Might Help Greatly To Boost Your Reputation
In addition to helping your website to increase the target audience for you and enhancing the results of your SEO efforts, one more reason why you should strive to make your site ADA complaint is that there are very high chances that your reputation and credibility will get a massive boost in your customers’ perspective just from being ADA compliant.
The single act of making your website ADA complaint might just be enough to convince your customers, especially the disabled ones that you regard them and have their best interests at heart. Definitely, you should know that with this conviction in the mind of your customers, there is no telling the level of reputation and customer loyalty you will build for your business.
More, these customers might go on to tell their family and friends about your website and how you have made it ADA complaint. This means that more people will get to know about your website and its ADA compliance, ultimately generating more business leads for you.
It Brings About a Better Interface and Usability for Your Website
One of the things that are sure when you make your website ADA compliant is that your website is bound to become more navigable and operable have a better interface, and increase in usability for the benefit of not just the disabled but all users who visit the site. Plus, when you are dedicated to following the guide, your website will stand better chances of converting more leads across the board as users will know for sure that they will always find the things they need on your website most easily. If you want to quickly see if your site is ADA compliant, you can try out this free online tool.
The benefits of ensuring that your website is ADA compliant cannot be overemphasized. Here we have a list of the many benefits your website stands to gain if you make it ADA compliant aside from helping you to avoid the many penalties of not complying. If you are yet to incorporate the ADA guides to your website, you sure should do it now.
