Accessibility for the Holidays
Accessibility for the Holidays
COVID-19 will change Holiday shopping forever
The online world can be a challenging place for the disabled. Most are visually impaired, but a significant population can suffer from seizures triggered by overly active graphics or other web page design elements. Many have avoided eCommerce for these reasons. But COVID-19 is going to trigger a sea-change in disabled shopping habits as traditional “brick and mortar” shopping now comes with new risks.
Websites are covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
At present, over 2,000 lawsuits are filed in federal court each year over websites not being accessible to disabled users. These numbers are likely to soar as demand among the disabled surges this Holiday season. If your business has a “brick and mortar” presence, the courts are treating your website as an extension of your building – and applying the same ADA expectations. In some parts of the U.S., courts have ruled that business websites are a “public accommodation” – even if the business is strictly online.
Why our AI-powered technology is superior
When installed, our technology feeds your content into a machine-learning algorithm that is constantly learning to interpret content for the benefit of disabled persons. Your website’s underlying content description language – known as “HTML” – supports tags and attributes that are not visually shown, but allow browsers to interpret the content for disabled users. Within 48 hours your site will be fully interpreted and configured to be compliant with the Website Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) v2.1, ensuring compliance with ADA and all major similar standards. Then every 24 hours your site is scanned for new content to ensure it remains compliant.