What Compliance Officers Need to Know About Complying with Web Accessibility Laws

The information presented within this guide is aimed at website owners seeking to learn the ropes of web accessibility and to create a more inclusive online environment for people with disabilities. Technical elements are described in layman’s terms, and, as a rule, all topics pertaining to the legalities of web accessibility are presented in as simplified a manner as possible. This blog has no legal bearing, and cannot be relied on in the case of litigation.

There is no shortage of laws, guidelines, and regulations you need to keep abreast of as your company’s compliance domain owner. 

However, while certain laws have gained wide-spread recognition, like those pertaining to data privacy and cybersecurity, others have not gained the same level of focus by many Corporate Compliance Officers.

One of the most critical areas that is still too often overlooked is web accessibility compliance.

There are a number of federal and international laws that either directly touch upon web accessibility or are widely applied to online environments, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

In this blog, we’ll explain how compliance personnel should approach implementing web accessibility compliance measures within their organizations. We will present the legal aspects of web accessibility, and detail what is expected of companies under various web accessibility laws. Finally, we’ll provide you with actionable tips on taking the next step in your company’s journey toward full compliance.  

What is web accessibility compliance?

Web accessibility compliance refers to the need to comply with web accessibility legislation. There are several federal and international laws you need to be aware of, in that regard:

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) 

Signed into law in 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), is the most important piece of legislation protecting the rights of people with disabilities in the United States. ADA Title III is specifically aimed at ensuring people with disabilities are given equal access and protection within places of ‘public accommodation’. The latter category includes almost all public-facing businesses, with few exceptions. 

While ADA Title III has traditionally been associated with accessibility within businesses’ physical domains, it is now widely applied to their online environments as well. 

Since 2018, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has repeatedly reaffirmed its position that websites fall under the purview of the ADA, and thus must be made accessible.

While nothing has officially been codified into law, many U.S. courts now view the DOJ’s stance as binding, and apply the ADA to websites. 

Section 508 of The Rehabilitation Act

Section 508 was added to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to address emerging technologies and the need to ensure people with disabilities can properly engage with them. 

This law applies to three major groups:

1. Government agencies
2. Organizations that receive federal funding
3. Service providers to federally-funded organizations

Unlike the ADA, Section 508 includes explicit instructions regarding web accessibility and the measures that must be taken to achieve compliance. We will detail these in a moment. To skip straight to that section, press here.  

The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA)

The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) was codified into law to ensure that Ontario-registered businesses make their websites accessible to people with disabilities. Enacted in 2005, the AODA requires Ontario-based organizations to implement specific web accessibility standards, ensuring online environments are usable for everyone. 

Upcoming European legislation

Several European laws focusing on web accessibility are set to be enforced starting in 2025. Notably, the European Accessibility Act (EAA) aims to ensure that digital services and products are accessible to people with disabilities across the European Union. Similarly, the Web Accessibility Directive requires public sector bodies to make their websites and mobile applications accessible. 

Bottom line: Web accessibility laws apply to many American, Canadian, and European organizations, public and privately-owned alike. Compliance officers need to be aware of these laws and take action to comply with them.

WCAG: The guidelines compliance officers need to be aware of

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) provide comprehensive instructions which, if followed, result in websites and web-based applications being accessible to people with various disabilities. Created by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), WCAG has served as the backbone and guiding force for web accessibility policy-making. 

Some web accessibility laws either point directly at WCAG as the standard for compliance, such as Section 508 and the AODA. In the case of the ADA, it is widely accepted that websites should conform with WCAG to achieve compliance with the law. 

WCAG versions and conformance levels

Throughout the years, there have been a number of WCAG versions (WCAG 2.0, 2.1, and 2.2), with each version consisting of three available levels of conformance:

1. Level A - the bare minimum level of conformance
2. Level AA - the optimal level of web accessibility conformance
3. Level AAA - the highest level of web accessibility conformance and most difficult to achieve 

Web accessibility laws point to Level AA as the standard websites should conform to:

• Section 508 and the AODA point to WCAG 2.0 Level AA as its standard for compliance
  
• The DOJ points to WCAG 2.0 and 2.1 Level AA as the standard websites should conform to under the ADA

What does conforming to WCAG 2.0 and 2.1 Level AA entail?

WCAG is built upon four guiding principles:

1. Perceivable: People should be able to perceive content appearing on your website through their senses of sight, sound, and touch
   
2. Operable: Website visitors need to be able to operate a website regardless of ability 
   
3. Understandable: A website needs to be easy to understand
   
4. Robust: A website needs to make use of clean HTML and CSS code that meets recognized standards, and needs to be compatible with assistive technology

Based on these principles, there are numerous practical criteria your website will need to meet to conform to WCAG 2.0 and 2.1 at Level AA. While the complete list is significantly longer, here are a few of the most important guidelines:

• Ensure compatibility with screen readers and other assistive technologies
• Use clear headings and labels
• Ensure that when website visitors adjust text spacing, there is no loss in functionality
• Ensure your website is responsive
• Add alt text to meaningful images
• Make sure to indicate in code when the language on a web page changes
• Allow for keyboard-only navigation
• Provide captions for live videos
• Ensure that text can be resized to 200% without loss of content or function
• Ensure a high contrast between text sections and their backgrounds
• Ensure online documents (like PDFs) are fully accessible

WCAG 2.1 Level AA vs 2.0 Level AA

WCAG 2.0 and 2.1 are very similar in their core principles and guidelines. However, WCAG 2.1 introduces new criteria to address emerging technologies. For example, WCAG 2.1 includes guidelines for ensuring that content is accessible on touch screens and can be operated using various input methods, enhancing the user experience for mobile device users. 

Bottom line: Conforming to WCAG 2.1 Level AA will require meeting virtually the same criteria, with a few added requirements to address modern web accessibility challenges.

We will provide practical advice on reaching conformance with WCAG Level AA later in the blog. You can press here to skip straight to that section. 

The price of ignoring web accessibility compliance

Failing to comply with these web accessibility laws can result in costly legal recourse.

Web accessibility lawsuits under the ADA have been on a steady rise in the last 5 years. Whereas in 2018, 2,314 ADA website compliance lawsuits were filed, that number ballooned up to 4,640 in 2023. Recent research has shown that this trend has continued throughout the first half of 2024, as well. 

Many companies have received demand letters, pointing out areas of their websites that do not fully conform to WCAG, and are allotted a specific timeframe in which they will need to take action. If these demand letters aren’t properly addressed, they often can lead to further legal action, such as facing web accessibility lawsuits.

There have been a number of ADA compliance lawsuits filed in the last few years, involving prominent companies such as Winn-Dixie, Blue Apron, the Whirlpool Corporation, Fox News Network, Parkwood Entertainment, Domino's Pizza, Barnes & Noble, and Sweetgreen, just to name a few.

It is worth noting that many U.S. courts rule in favor of the plaintiff, especially in states like California, Florida, and New York. 

Legal action can prove costly, and have severe ramifications on your company’s reputation. 

Consumers increasingly prioritize businesses that showcase a sincere level of social awareness and responsibility toward inclusivity. Research conducted by Harvard Business School shows that 88% of consumers look at a brand’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts when considering whether to make a purchase.

When your website excludes members of the various disability communities — which account for more than 28% of adult Americans — many existing and potential customers can rightfully view this as an act of discrimination. 

Bottom line: Failing to comply with the ADA and other accessibility laws can lead to your company facing significant legal action, as well as tarnish your reputation among existing and potential clientele.

So, what should you do?

Web accessibility issues are best addressed using a variety of tools and approaches. Thankfully, there are a number of innovative solutions available for SMEs and large-scale enterprises, which can expedite the process of auditing a website for accessibility, and ensure the necessary level of WCAG conformance is achieved andmaintained throughout website updates and revisions.

Let’s dive into the process:

1. Perform an accessibility audit 

To properly address the accessibility issues appearing on your website, you will first need to identify them. 

There are a number of ways in which you can go about doing this:

• Manual testing approach: This method entails performing a thorough evaluation of your website, which is typically conducted by web accessibility experts such as accessServices. These service providers examine will comb through your site, app, and online documents, and test their level of WCAG conformance
  
• Automated testing tools: Automated tools, such as accessScan, quickly scan your web page for accessibility issues. If any are found, they will be presented to you in a detailed report, available to be downloaded as a PDF

The optimal auditing approach is one that blends both testing methods. 

Automated tools can be leveraged for an initial inspection to find the most glaring accessibility issues. Web accessibility experts can then dig deeper into the problems detected during the automated audit, gauge their severity, and decide on the best ways in which to tackle them. 

2. Rely on powerful, AI-driven tools to remediate accessibility issues and maintain ongoing compliance 

Once you’ve gained a clear understanding of your website’s accessibility status and the scope and severity of the issues existing within it, you will need to take action.

Like with the auditing process, remediating your website for ongoing accessibility and compliance can be approached from a variety of angles, and by leveraging a number of tools. 

Solutions such as accessWidget are relied on by many organizations to automatically detect the vast majority of accessibility issues plaguing your site before moving on to remediating them quickly and efficiently. 

These tools also present your website visitors with an interface through which they can adjust design and UI elements to fit their unique needs. For example, people with certain vision impairments, such as color blindness and low vision, can adjust color contrasts and increase font size on a given web page. 

3. Make sure to address all digital assets

To fully adhere to WCAG, and to reach compliance with web accessibility legislation, you will need to ensure that all areas of your website are accessible. This includes:

• Online documents: PDF files and Microsoft Office applications (e.g., Word documents and Excel spreadsheets) will need to be remediated if there are accessibility issues within them. Online document remediation is an in-depth topic, which you can learn more about by checking out our guide for PDF accessibility and this piece on document remediation
• Videos: Meaningful video content (i.e., the kind which conveys critical information, and doesn’t appear purely for decorative purposes), needs to be made accessible. This entails adding full and accurate captions, as well as audio descriptions. We recommend you check out this guide for more information on audio descriptions

Enterprise and large-scale organizations typically have large volumes of videos and documents that need to be audited and addressed. As they usually lack the internal resources to complete accessibility projects at this scale, many enterprises choose to rely on web accessibility expert service providers, such as accessServices, to perform these tasks for them.

With an intimate knowledge of WCAG and its application to assets of this kind, web accessibility experts are better able to handle these projects in a timely and cost-effective manner.

Important note for companies with government contracts

If your organization plans on bidding for government contracts, or is interested in showcasing its commitment to accessibility in order to attract clients who work closely with federally-funded bodies, you will need to fill out a VPAT.

Standing for Voluntary Product Accessibility Template, VPATs are a necessary component of complying with Section 508, and entail performing a thorough auditing process of your website, as well as other information and communication technologies (ICT). The latter category includes websites, and web-based applications, as well as  software, certain telecom products, and other hardware.

VPATs are typically filled out by web accessibility experts, such as accessServices. Once completed, a VPAT will become an Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR), which you will need to make available on your website.

You can read more about VPATs by pressing here. 

Closing thoughts

Compliance officers have no shortage of areas they need to be diligent about in 2024. Yet, chief among them is the need to ensure their companies are presenting accessible websites and web-based applications, and doing what is expected of them under the law. 

Web accessibility can be tackled through a variety of approaches, and while leveraging a number of tools. It is important to be aware that accessibility requires ongoing maintenance, similar to other areas, such as cybersecurity and data protection.

To that end, you can benefit considerably from AI-driven tools designed to course correct accessibility issues that arise when your website is updated or undergoes significant changes.