Being sued because our website is not accessable to the visually impared

SixPapaCharlie

SixPapaCharlie

May the force be with you
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What the F???

"We represent a sight-disabled client who plans to sue you under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Our client attempted to access your website to learn more about your products and services and potentially make purchases. However, our client was unable to do so because your website is not accessible to the visually-impaired, which we have since confirmed and documented."

YGTBFSM!

I suspect if I visit the attorney's site it is a gem for the visually impaired.
 
Where’s the punchline?

Surely that can’t be legitimate...
 
sounds like you were caught.....blind-sighted or is that blind-sided? o_O
 
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Ask Jay Honeck how much the ADA cost him to put in a handicapped spatula that has never been used.
 
I'm sure he has mentioned, or will mentioned, how this whole mess can be remedied with just the writing of a single check with lots of zeros.
 
I’m dealing with a bunch of accessible web malarkey at work as well. Except instead of being sued, some idiot salesman agreed to it in a contract with a government entity without first checking to see if our site was compliant or how much work it would be to bring it into compliance. It’s a lot.
 
It does happen, with the plaintiffs being both visually-impaired and hearing-impaired people.

The most critical requirements to immunize yourself from these suits are:
  • Make sure that screen readers can read your site. That's usually easy. Many Linux distros have screen readers built in or available for free.
  • Markup errors that might not affect how a site looks may affect whether a screen reader can read it, so the pages need to be checked for things like unterminated tags and the like.
  • All images and image maps must have ALT tags, and they must accurately describe the images. If the image contains text, the ALT tag must also contain the text. If the image is something like a Facebook sharing button, the ALT tag should say that it's a Facebook sharing button. Etcetera.
  • Forms must have the LABEL tags associated with the form fields. Visual text is not enough. Screen readers use the LABEL tags to guide the reader to the correct form fields.
  • It also helps if ordinary text links have TITLE tags, but that's not mandatory.
  • The text must be scalable. This is also easy. You have to go out of your way to make it not scalable.
  • You don't have to have "font size" selectors because any browser can rescale text without them, but they're a nice touch.
  • Images should not be used for text. When they are, they need to have ALT tags with the text.
  • Videos, seminars, etc. must be captioned.
There are other things you could do, but if you do all the above, no accessibility lawsuit against you would succeed in any rational court.

Rich
 
“We’re very sorry. Please have them contact our sales department via telephone and we’ll do everything possible to make their purchase of our products as simple and painless as possible.”
 
tawood said:
I'm sure he has mentioned, or will mentioned, how this whole mess can be remedied with just the writing of a single check with lots of zeros.
Click to expand...
Since this is computer related, shouldn't it be lots of ONES and zeroes?

And then dole it out bit by bit?
 
makes about as much sense as putting braille on drive up ATMs ... oh wait - that's a thing! smh
 
Why don't you include a braille banner at the bottom of your web site?
 
gkainz said:
makes about as much sense as putting braille on drive up ATMs ... oh wait - that's a thing! smh
Click to expand...
I posted before I saw your post.
But the thing about braille on drive up ATMs is that when they are manufactured, they don't know they if they will be put in a drive-through or not.
 
I work in IT in higher ed, been there done that. You can do a quick test of your site here: https://wave.webaim.org/

Clean up the big items. The government offices in charge of this stuff are overwhelmed by the number of cases being put through so are eager to get these behind them. Fixing the big stuff will usually get you off the hook.
 
RJM62 said:
It does happen, with the plaintiffs being both visually-impaired and hearing-impaired people.

The most critical requirements to immunize yourself from these suits are:
  • Make sure that screen readers can read your site. That's usually easy. Many Linux distros have screen readers built in or available for free.
  • Markup errors that might not affect how a site looks may affect whether a screen reader can read it, so the pages need to be checked for things like unterminated tags and the like.
  • All images and image maps must have ALT tags, and they must accurately describe the images. If the image contains text, the ALT tag must also contain the text. If the image is something like a Facebook sharing button, the ALT tag should say that it's a Facebook sharing button. Etcetera.
  • Forms must have the LABEL tags associated with the form fields. Visual text is not enough. Screen readers use the LABEL tags to guide the reader to the correct form fields.
  • It also helps if ordinary text links have TITLE tags, but that's not mandatory.
  • The text must be scalable. This is also easy. You have to go out of your way to make it not scalable.
  • You don't have to have "font size" selectors because any browser can rescale text without them, but they're a nice touch.
  • Images should not be used for text. When they are, they need to have ALT tags with the text.
  • Videos, seminars, etc. must be captioned.
There are other things you could do, but if you do all the above, no accessibility lawsuit against you would succeed in any rational court.

Rich
Click to expand...

Or have less than 15 employees.
 
the kind of strange thing is that we don't actually sell products directly on our website. My company sell stuff on Amazon Wayfair Lowe's Target overstock etc
 
It's a shotgun approach. They are casting a wide net hoping to catch a few fish.
 
Almost 30 years and folks still drag their feet. It isn't that hard.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
the kind of strange thing is that we don't actually sell products directly on our website. My company sell stuff on Amazon Wayfair Lowe's Target overstock etc
Click to expand...

It's more about your company's bottom line.
 
So question for the group. Lets say a company hired an outside firm to build their website. If a similar ADA suit pops up, who gets sued? The company itself? The web group that built and maintains the website for them? Both?
 
Specs should be in the contract so company is responsible. Outside firm should tell them the requirement though
 
Yes, this is a real thing and that's what we get for allowing lawyers to breed like rabbits (or drunk rednecks).
You don't have many options but if you'd like that a**hat lawyer taken care of, it doesn't take as many zeroes as he's asking.
Sorry you have been targeted by these a-holes, wishing you good luck in prison, I hope you find a gentle lover there. :thumbsup:
 
Zeldman said:
I am gonna sue everyone here because I can't hear your responses....
Click to expand...

I'm going to sue you for impersonating a bear with your avatar. This is misleading information.
 
ejensen said:
Almost 30 years and folks still drag their feet. It isn't that hard.
Click to expand...

It really isn't. The hardest part for me is writing good ALT tags that are meaningful and accurate while still being concise. The rest is just what designers should be doing anyway.

Rich
 
Juliet Hotel said:
So question for the group. Lets say a company hired an outside firm to build their website. If a similar ADA suit pops up, who gets sued? The company itself? The web group that built and maintains the website for them? Both?
Click to expand...

Probably both would be my guess. Plus maybe the hosting company just for good measure.

Rich
 
Make a visually impaired site

vi.yourdomain.com and offer the option to view that site from your main page.
That site gets no graphics and just text.
 
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