Why ADA compliance is necessary for your ecommerce project?

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Why is ADA compliance necessary for your ecommerce project?

Running an online business is not an easy task. Besides generating revenue and keeping the business running, they also need to focus on regulatory compliance or face unwanted lawsuits and hefty penalties. With the tremendous rise of SaaS ecommerce platforms, lawmakers are drafting strict policies like PCI and ADA to ensure consumer interest. But many of us are not clear about what the actual standards and requirements are for website ADA compliance.

So in this topic let’s understand all about

What is ada website compliance?

ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) came into existence in 1990 to avoid discrimination toward disabled people. Here, disability may refer to physical or mental disability. According to ADA, “disability” can be defined as “individual suffering” from any physical or mental impairment that might limit their life activity.

The physical disability may include visual and muscular issues, hearing issues, epilepsy, and Parkinson’s disease, while mental disability may include cognitive disability, problem-solving, dyslexia, etc.

ADA came into effect so that disabled people may gain access to each product or service, similar to non-disabled people. In the early 1990s, there was no concept of “E-. “So, this Act was for physical outlets. The issues that ADA dealt with were checking the accessibility of wheelchairs, adequate parking space for the disabled, and alike. Thus, ada site compliance was a good initiative to remove any discrimination and provide equal opportunities to all.

ADA compliance website
Source : google.com

In 1999, the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) created the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Thus, the people who started to merge the Internet with the businesses are compelling the web developers to make the E-commerce websites easily accessible for the people suffering from physical or mental disabilities, with the use of limited resources.

Today, WCAG 2.0 has set the standard for NGOs (non-governmental organizations). The Department of Justice is using WCAG 2.0 for judging easy accessibility and ADA website compliance in different court cases.

Website Ada Compliant
source : multimediasolutions.com

With great advancements in technology, all the products and services are growing out of E-commerce. Everything is accessible in this digital world. But this increasing accessibility is somewhere or the other, recreating the discrimination factor among the people.

USA Disability population
Source : getadaaccessible.com

There are around 57 million of the total population of America, accounting for 19%, which is suffering from either physical or mental disability. To bring down the discrimination level in the country, it is necessary to make the disabled people digitally accessible. Thus, the need is to get E-commerce websites ada web compliance.

Is your ecommerce website ADA complaint?]
Source : DCKAP.com

E-commerce websites, from the origin of the concept of E-commerce, have followed the guidelines set up by Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). WCAG has laid down the basic standards which every E-commerce website need to follow in order to survive from lawsuits, though WCAG does not contain any legal regulations. According to WCAG, the websites should follow four basic necessities:

  • Perceivable: The visitors should be able to appreciate every element of the E-commerce website.
  • Operable: The visitors should be able to easily access as well as use every element of the E-commerce website.
  • Understandable: The website developers should use such elements in the website that can be easily understood by the website visitors.
  • Robust: The website developers need to be sure that the website should be compatible with the different technologies and can be customized easily.

What is the impact of the ADA on SaaS eCommerce platforms?

What is the relationship between eCommerce websites and people who are disabled? Consider a blind person who wants to buy anything from your online store. How will he or she be able to shop if they can’t see or know what’s available? This is where the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) comes into play in terms of accessibility. In general, a SaaS eCommerce platform is called compliant if it is built in such a way that it is accessible to individuals with impairments.

The option to enter ALT Text (alternative text) on Instagram is one of the best instances of accessibility. Its goal is to specify an image in text format for use by a screen reader by a blind person.

Get your website ADA compliant today to increase your reach by 20%.
Get free Accessibility Report

Along with 60 criteria laid by WCAG, it has become important for the website developers to obtain ADA compliance. This is because ADA compliance websites can break the discrimination barriers on digital platforms.

The main aim behind ada web compliance is to bring the disabled and non-disabled people to reach the same level of digital accessibility in the same way as the accessibility level that is presently offline.

ADA compliant websites cover various types of business entities which include:

  • Private entity with minimum 15 employees
  • Public entities at the State-level and local-level
  • Entities operating for benefit of public as well as non-profit businesses

These business entities not only include physical products and services but also include digital products and services.

Owners of the website that offers services of human needs a powerful online presence with an ada website accessibility to set themselves up for lawsuits.

Therefore, many eCommerce website owners employ the skilled ecommerce website development company who can bring ADA compliance to their projects which ultimately help to get standard quality.

5 reasons why E-commerce business needs an ADA compliant website:

Broaden the reach

1. Broader the range of potential customer

With 19% disabled people in the country, the companies can imagine the range of the potential customers they might be losing. If the E-commerce website of the company is ADA compliant, then even the disabled people who want to try out those products and services can reach out to the company and become a potential customer for it. If the presentation is good and the product and service is easily accessible, the range of potential customers can be broadened.

2. Build a block of your reputation

ADA compliant websites
Source : google.com

If a website is ADA compliant, it can bring in a number of more customers. This is also the reason of making the website easily accessible. If a customer is happy and satisfied with the accessibility of the website, he/she would recommend the website in his/her friend circle, this would help in bringing a good reputation to the company. Thus, in comparison to other competitors, easy online accessibility can give a competitive advantage to the company.

3. To avoid potential lawsuits

Avoid ADA website lawsuits
Source : google.com

Since September 2010, ADA is projecting various regulations for E-commerce websites. Each regulation is associated with lawsuits. Till date, there have been various lawsuits which have involved companies like Hotels.com, Target, Expedia, and Southwest Airlines as defendants. Today, when all the businesses have their website, it has become a compulsion that the websites at least comply with grade A, with highest among grade AAA.

4. Accessibility makes the Internet a more valuable resource for everyone

ADA compliance makes internet strong
Source : google.com

Creating a more operable and navigable website will ultimately benefit all users while still meeting WCAG guidelines. Making the web pages easier to comprehend will allow everyone – disabled or non – to find what they are looking for quickly. If the web developer decides to follow the guidelines, the website will likely convert more leads across the board because the users will trust that they can always easily find the content they need.

5.Improve website SEO

img-five

With improvement in technology, search engines are getting better and refining the search according to the needs of the people. WCAG has laid foundation to add screen readers which can make the website easily accessible to the disabled people too. This will ultimately help to improve website SEO. It is necessary for the company to seriously consider the concept of Meta tagging, video transcripts, and alternate text for image.

Conclusion

It is necessary to adapt to web accessibility compliance not just because of the negative consequences but also because the businesses can profit from them. The easy online accessibility for the users can help to:

  • Provide better customer experience especially for those suffering from physical and mental disability.
  • Improve the reputation of the business as well as help in brand recognition by the continuous efforts
  • Reach to millions of users who might not have reached to such a website if the accessibility was too hard for them.

ADA website compliance is one of the challenging issues for online businesses because the Act has not yet been formally updated which could reflect its requirements for providing easy accessibility.

But ADA compliance is a legal requirement though it lacks clarity about how it should follow the norms laid. Still, many businesses are following the guidelines laid by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) as an alternative for ADA web compliance. But a legal framework is necessary to justify ADA compliance.

Contact us if you are looking for ADA compliant ecommerce development which enhances user interaction and gives enjoyable user experience.

Established in 2010, Coreway Solution which is the Magento certified ecommerce web development company work with passion to bring your ideas to life.

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