Is your law firm website compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act?
Does my law firm website have to be compliant with ADA?
YES IT DOES.
The threat of lawsuits
Law firms have to be careful if they don’t follow these guidelines, as websites without any accessibility features for the disabled have already gotten owners in trouble. Even for a small website, the necessary changes that need to be made to help disabled users can easily run into tens of thousands of dollars. These problems have made it to the local news, and some small businesses in Florida have had to spend thousands of dollars to pay attorney’s fees and agree to make changes to their websites within a certain period of time as part of a settlement.
Here is what the Florida Bar Association says about ADA compliance.
“Title III specifically lists law offices as a place of public accommodation and requires law offices to provide full and equal services and privileges to disabled persons.”
How to make your law firm website ADA compliant
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that websites be accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities. This means that all law firm websites should strive to comply with ADA guidelines. Failure to comply can lead to discrimination lawsuits, financial liabilities, and damage to reputation. Businesses can also be fined up to $150,000 for ADA violations.
Here are some ways to ensure your law firm website is ADA compliant:
- Ensure all functions can be operated with a keyboard
- Make sure all information is understandable: This includes text, images, videos, and tools.
- Ensure content is robust enough to be interpreted by a variety of users: This includes users using assistive technologies.
- Include alt tags for every media file and map
- Use descriptive HTML tags for online forms
- Make buttons, links, and other interactive elements easily identifiable
- Allow users to adjust font size in their browser settings
- Supplement color-coding with a second mechanism, such as labels
- Use asterisks to indicate required form fields
- Provide meaningful alternative text descriptions for images
- Provide error messages and notifications to help users interact with the website
- Ensure PDF files on the website are accessible
- Ensure all archived pages are accessible