This week saw the Supreme Court in the USA hand victory to a blind man who sued Domino’s over site accessibility.
Guillermo Robles sued the pizza chain after he was unable to order food on Domino’s website and mobile app despite using his screen-reading software. His attorneys argued that “the Americans with Disabilities Act requires businesses with physical locations to make their websites and other online platforms accessible to those with disabilities.”
According to accessible technology firm UsableNet, this lawsuit is one of an increasing number of lawsuits filed over website accessibility in the last few years. They said that “last year, more than 2,200 such suits were filed in federal courts.” Read the story in full here: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/07/dominos-supreme-court.html .
This may have happened in America and to a large company, so you may think it doesn’t relate to your small business or startup. That’s where you’re wrong. Each country around the world has its own rules and regulations that stipulate a requirement for businesses to make their websites accessible to those with disabilities especially if you are in the public sector or offer a public service.
Make sure you check the regulations and laws for your own country, but also don’t forget if you have a strong online presence, you are likely to get international website visitors. These visitors may expect you to have the same regulations and accessibility as in their own country.
“On 23 September 2018 new regulations on the accessibility of websites and mobile applications of public sector bodies came into force in the UK.
These regulations implement the EU directive on web accessibility and require public sector websites and mobile applications to achieve specific accessibility standards. This applies to all publicly-funded higher and further education institutions.
The government will be monitoring affected websites and apps to check they follow the rules and aren’t breaking the new legal requirements.” [source: https://www.jisc.ac.uk/accessibility]
For UK companies and businesses, you can find details on website accessibility and what is expected of your business here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/make-your-website-or-app-accessible-and-publish-an-accessibility-statement .
Did you know that according to Userway “One-in-five users require web accessibility to use your site”? We think its better to be safe than sorry and we now recommend all of our clients, no matter how big or small to have an accessibility widget installed on their website that uses the latest accessibility software (including screen reading technology, text enlargement and more other features), as well as an accessibility disclaimer clearly listed on their website.
We have added such technology to our own website to ensure that it is as accessible to everyone as currently possible with today’s technology. We use the Userway accessibility widget and can install this on your Wix website for you alongside an Accessibility disclaimer page and text for a small fee of just £35.00, book this service today at https://www.tpdigital.co.uk/wix-editing-packages .
We will be recommending all of our Wix website clients to install such software to their Wix sites from now on.
