According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are 61 million American citizens with a disability — about 40% of adults over 65, and one in every four women. Passed in 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities, and applies to all private businesses employing 15 or more people.
The Cost of Non-Compliance
Non-compliance with the ADA can result in fines of up to $75,000, and up to $150,000 for additional violations — on top of the legal, reputational, and brand-image damage that can follow even a single violation. Over 11,400 ADA lawsuits were filed in 2021 alone, a 4% increase from 2020 and a 320% increase from 2013.
Web Accessibility Is Part of the Law
ADA regulations also apply to business websites: the W3C defines web accessibility as designing websites, tools, and technologies so that people with disabilities — auditory, cognitive, physical, or neurological — can use them. Yet only about 2.6% of websites are considered accessible, costing companies an estimated $6.9 billion a year in lost revenue to competitors with accessible sites, and 97.4% of the top million websites are still not ADA-compliant.
The Four Principles of Accessibility
Under W3C guidelines, effective accessibility comes down to four principles: perceivability (content that's easy for anyone to understand, like alt text on images), operability (easy to navigate, like keyboard-enabled navigation), understandability (clear instructions and meaningful language instead of relying on color alone), and robustness (content that works across devices, from desktops to phones to tablets).
What Accessibility Testing Looks Like
Testing typically covers visual tools (screen readers, distinguishable colors, text alternatives to images), motor and mobility tools (voice recognition, touch screens, keyboard overlays, one-handed keyboards), auditory tools for video content (captions, transcripts, video descriptions), and cognitive tools (simple instructions and intuitive design).
Through proper testing and design, companies can avoid the legal and financial pitfalls of ADA non-compliance — and expand their potential customer base to people with a wide range of physical and cognitive disabilities in the process.
