Ecobyte treatsweb accessibility as a top priority.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 covers a wide range of recommendations for making Web content more accessible. Following these guidelines will make content more accessible to a wider range of people with disabilities, including accommodations for blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, limited movement, speech disabilities, photosensitivity, and combinations of these, and some accommodation for learning disabilities and cognitive limitations; but will not address every user need for people with these disabilities. These guidelines address accessibility of web content on desktops, laptops, tablets, and mobile devices. Following these guidelines will also often make Web content more usable to users in general.

WCAG 2.1 success criteria are written as testable statements that are not technology-specific. Guidance about satisfying the success criteria in specific technologies, as well as general information about interpreting the success criteria, is provided in separate documents. See Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Overview for an introduction and links to WCAG technical and educational material.

WCAG 2.1 extends Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 [WCAG20], which was published as a W3C Recommendation December 2008. Content that conforms to WCAG 2.1 also conforms to WCAG 2.0. The WG intends that for policies requiring conformance to WCAG 2.0, WCAG 2.1 can provide an alternate means of conformance. The publication of WCAG 2.1 does not deprecate or supersede WCAG 2.0. While WCAG 2.0 remains a W3C Recommendation, the W3C advises the use of WCAG 2.1 to maximize future applicability of accessibility efforts. The W3C also encourages use of the most current version of WCAG when developing or updating Web accessibility policies.

Source: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/

ADA compliance makes your website accessible to all users and refers to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Standards for Accessible Design. Non-compliance with the ADA can result in fines ranging from $55,000-$150,000, along with lawsuits from affected users.

Organizations that need to adhere to ADA requirements include:

• State and local government agencies (Title II)
• Businesses open to the public (Title III)

Common examples of affected businesses include:

• Retail stores
• Banks
• Hotels
• Hospitals
• Doctor offices
• Restaurants
• Movie theaters

• Poor color contrast. People with limited vision or color blindness cannot read text if there is not enough contrast between the text and background (for example, light gray text on a light-colored background).

• Use of color alone to give information. People who are color-blind may not have access to information when that information is conveyed using only color cues because they cannot distinguish certain colors from others. Also, screen readers do not tell the user the color of text on a screen, so a person who is blind would not be able to know that color is meant to convey certain information (for example, using red text alone to show which fields are required on a form).

• Lack of text alternatives (“alt text”) on images. People who are blind will not be able to understand the content and purpose of images, such as pictures, illustrations, and charts, when no text alternative is provided. Text alternatives convey the purpose of an image, including pictures, illustrations, charts, etc.

• No captions on videos. People with hearing disabilities may not be able to understand information communicated in a video if the video does not have captions.

• Inaccessible online forms. People with disabilities may not be able to fill out, understand, and accurately submit forms without things like:
  • Labels that screen readers can convey to their users (such as text that reads “credit card number” where that number should be entered);
  • Clear instructions; and
  • Error indicators (such as alerts telling the user a form field is missing or incorrect).
• Mouse-only navigation (lack of keyboard navigation). People with disabilities who cannot use a mouse or trackpad will not be able to access web content if they cannot navigate a website using a keyboard.

Source: https://www.ada.gov/resources/web-guidance/

According to a report published by Accessibility.com, U.S. businesses received 265,000 website accessibility demand letters and lawsuits in 2020. That doesn’t necessarily mean that every business was non-compliant with the ADA or other relevant accessibility laws — and many demand letters did not result in litigation.

Still, businesses pay a high price for noncompliance: Per one estimate from accessibility consultant Kris Rivenburgh, small businesses can expect to pay around $25,000 to settle a single ADA lawsuit.