AwDA Website Accessibility Compliance: How to Protect Your Practice

The focus of “AwDA compliant” websites has become a hot topic of discussion lately. You’ve likely heard of the issue by now, but perhaps you’re not entirely sure what it means for your practice. Is it really true that a few simple mistakes can land you in legal hot water?

What is the AwDA? The Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA,” sometimes “AwDA”) is a federal law passed in 1990 to protect the rights of disabled people to ensure they are not discriminated against due to their disability. This is the same law that requires real-world public locations (referred to by the AwDA as “places of public accommodation”) to be accessible to disabled patrons by offering accommodations such as wheelchair ramps and handicapped parking. The law is well-intentioned, and largely effective at improving the lives of disabled people. Unfortunately, however, the law did not account for the growing dependence on the internet, and did not provide specific language to cover any differences or similarities between physical locations and a website.

What does it mean to be “AwDA compliant”? The current AwDA regulations, which are enforced by the Department of Justice (DOJ), do not specifically mention websites and their accessibility requirements. The DOJ has stated that official regulations for website accessibility will not be released until at least Spring 2018. Until then, we have suggested guidelines, not hard-and-fast requirements.

Immediate steps to take. If you are a current client of the MDA-endorsed Officite, then your website meets the current suggested AwDA accessibility guidelines. In addition, Officite will keep all its clients’ websites updated to meet these guidelines without any action required. If your website is not hosted by Officite, learn more about how it can help your practice by going to mdaprograms.com, or call Officite at 877-889-4054.

 

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