“ADA Website Compliance is not an Option; it is the Law.”
- Richard Uzelac
“We have been following the drama around the Americans With Disabilities Act Website Compliance Law for over two years. After the Domino’s Pizza case went to the Supreme Court, and Domino’s lost the suit, things got serious, ADA Compliance was real, and it was here to stay,” said Richard Uzelac, CEO of GoMarketing. “Before that case’s outcome finalized, we had continued to work as we had, with high quality Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for our Clients. Good SEO almost equated to ADA Compliance. In fact, in many ways ADA is simply better SEO Optimization, “ Richard Uzelac added.
The team at GoMarketing decided to offer specific ADA Website Compliance Services to their Clients, and any business that wanted to become compliant. Compliance is basically adjusting the site to be usable for the Deaf, Hard of Hearing, Blind, and Partially Blind.
“In early 2019 we were approached by quite a few Companies that wanted bids and pricing for website Americans with Disabilities Act compliance. In some cases, the companies gave us the fees others were charging for compliance and we were astounded at the astronomical prices,” said Richard Uzelac. “Companies with thirty-page websites were getting quotes of $20,000 or more to get their sites ADA Compliant. We saw quite a bit of price gouging going on because business owners simply did not know what was involved and what it took to become compliant. Many owners were terrified to become the next sued company in their space,” added Uzelac.
GoMarketing offers several programs designed to meet the needs of any company and their websites. The process to compliance is usually straight forward and it is clearly explained with no mystery to our Clients.
Analysis: Analyzing the current website and identify all issue the site has that is keeping the site from becoming compliant.
Development: Developing the backend and frontend code and content of the website to meet ADA Compliance, this includes providing changes to the site for the Deaf, Hard of Hearing, Blind, Partially Blind.
User Adjustable Interface: GoMarketing uses a proprietary software that enables all users to modify their experience of being on the site to meet their own individual needs.
Here are examples of just some of the items addressed during ADA Compliance Optimization by GoMarketing:
- Logical overall layout of the site and navigation
- Forms are logical and follow a pattern throughout the website.
- No auto-submissions of forms, all must have an action performed to be submitted.
- Images: Adding Titles, Captions and/or Alt-Text to each picture that explains what is on the picture to someone with sight impairment.
Videos: Adding closed captions to all videos for the hearing disabled to understand what is being communicated in the video. Also, ability for all users to pause, stop or replay a video.
- Audio Transcriptions: For recorded sound media, adding the transcription text from the media to the page or quickly reachable by a link for the hearing impaired.
- Keyboard Accessibility: The website must be navigable by just a keyboard, without the use of a mouse or similar.
- Easy to read Text, Contrast, and Sizing.
These are just a sample of the requirements for ADA Website Compliance.
In addition to the actions taken above to become compliant, GoMarketing offers a new proprietary website program that allows all impaired users to alter their individual interface with the Clients website.
This new ADA User Interface Controller, ADA UIC, allows the blind/partially blind or deaf/partially deaf to adjust the following:
User Accessibility Interface (Foreground App.) allows users to change:
- Fonts and Font Sizes
- Site Colors and Contrasts
- Use a Virtual Keyboard
- Control Cursor type and size
- Engage an Online Glossary
- Stop/Pause Animations/Videos
Artificial Machine Learning (Background App.) supports users with:
- WAI-Aria 1.1 Compliant
- Adds Alt tags to Images to Describe them to the blind, auto updated daily.
- Menus-Made compatible for accessibility software
- Dropdowns- Made compatible for accessibility software
- Popups- Made compatible for accessibility software
- Forms- Made compatible for accessibility software
- Widgets- Made compatible for accessibility software
- Icons- Made compatible for accessibility software
- Buttons- Made compatible for accessibility software
Should you become compliant? Yes, it is now the law to be compliant.
The industries that have been hit the most with ADA Lawsuits so far are:
- Travel/Hospitality
- Restaurants/Food Service:
- Medical/Health
- E-Commerce
- Universities/Educational
- Beauty/Fitness/Wellness
- Entertainment/Leisure:
- Insurance
- Retail Stores
- Home Services
- Banking/Financial
- Real Estate
- Automotive
- Government
But when a company from a different field is sued successfully, there seems to be a lot more lawsuits for that industry or field being filed.
“Every week a new industry or field is highlighted in a lawsuit and other companies are soon hit over ADA non-compliance very quickly. The list of industry grows so fast that it can be said ALL industries and fields are now in jeopardy of being sued for ADA violations. Key new industries are Home Services and Professional Services,” offers Richard Uzelac.
If you want to get started, or have questions, call GoMarketing.com at 805-413-7893.
About GoMarketing
Based out of Thousand Oaks, California, GoMarketing uses the following mission statement to deliver digital marketing results to their clients: “Understand. Engage. Succeed. Grow.” Acting as digital marketing professionals within a wide range of industry sectors, the GoMarketing team specializes in many Services, including; SEO, content strategy, website design and website development, and more. GoMarketing provides a full suite of marketing solutions that generate online leads through SEO and Google and Facebook Ads and sales for businesses throughout the country. For more information about their custom marketing plans, contact GoMarketing directly at 805.413.7893 or visit GoMarketing.
About Richard Uzelac, CEO of GoMarketing
Founder of GoMarketing and RealtyTech Inc., Richard Uzelac is an Emmy award-winning graphics producer, former Director of Realtor.com, and sits on several boards of directors. Richard Uzelac’s GoMarketing works with Corporations and Small Businesses to generate exposure, sales and improve online reputation. Mr. Richard Uzelac is also available as a Technology Speaker, Seminar Provider and Business Consultant. For more information, contact Richard Uzelac at 805.413.7893.