Americans with Disabilities Act – What to Know about Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1

You’ve likely encountered a wheelchair ramp while entering a public building or heard a pedestrian crosswalk counting down the time to aid those that are visually impaired. 

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ensures accommodations like these extend to online websites to allow equal access while accessing healthcare, public records, or applying to a college. 

In 2018, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) were introduced by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to meet the needs of accessibility.  

The WCAG 2.1 are a set of technical standards focused on the accessibility of web content, websites and web applications for people with a wide range of disabilities—including auditory, cognitive, neurological, physical, speech, and visual disabilities. There are WCAG一致性的三个级别 (A, AA, AAA) and the U.S. 司法部参考了WCAG 2.1 level AA as a benchmark for many of its most recent ADA enforcements.

随着《bet9游戏平台》指南和标准的出台, 那些不遵守规定的公司可能面临严重的法律后果. In fact, lawsuits for non-compliance with ADA and the WCAG 2.1 have increased rapidly throughout 2023, with some of the top headlines including:

• 纽约州和加利福尼亚州的州法院都有 414 lawsuits to date as of June 2023, in the entire calendar year of 2022 there were only 313 lawsuits.
• 达美乐披萨和塔吉特也有 both been sued over their websites being non-accessible when using a screen-reader.  
• Over 70% of the 2023 lawsuits being filed are against organizations with under $25 million in revenue.
• 2023年，教育成为 third most targeted sector, superseding Travel, Hospitality, Healthcare and the Entertainment sector.  

In many court cases, 包括达美乐和塔吉特, the court’s final decision has been based on the website’s compliance to the WCAG.  WCAG 2.1 lays out over 200 unique guidelines built upon four principles: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust (AKA the POUR Principles).

这些标准分为18条准则. W3C lists the WCAG 2.1 guidelines and includes successful actions that can be implemented to comply. You have likely pressed the “Tab” key on your keyboard to navigate through a website, played an embedded video which had subtitles or paused a scrolling timeline of events. These are common solutions 在许多网站开发残障人士的思想.

To remain compliant and competitive, large business are seeking guidance on implementing WCAG 2.1. WhatsApp invested resources to be more accessible for a broader audience and by 2023 were ranked India’s most accessible app for people with disabilities and received a rating of ‘Highly Accessible’ based on the WCAG 2.1

对于许多公司来说，响应和遵守WCAG 2.1 can be a challenge. Schneider Downs suggests meeting the conformance level of AA and documenting all actions taken, complete and ongoing. 施耐德唐斯执行了ADA合规审计, 根据WCAG 2调查公司网站.1. Ultimately, our team provides a remediation roadmap to AA conformance.

Not only can Schneider Downs help companies comply with the ADA, but with improved accessibility comes a wider range of users to attract.

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