What Does an ADA Compliant Website Mean?

You might have heard the term ADA Compliant, referencing the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, which was signed into law under the first George Bush in 1990. The bill was enacted to prohibit discrimination against those with physical disabilities to ensure fair and equal access (or accommodation thereof) to public places. Initially, the focus was on eliminating barriers and providing access for all, to all businesses, schools, and public areas. Recently, “Places of Public Accommodation” under Title III of ADA, has come under scrutiny as to whether or not websites and mobile apps are included within these laws.

The Threat of ADA Non-Compliance

Websites with significant inaccessible components can be seen as discriminatory against persons with disabilities. In the recent past, there has been an influx of lawsuits threatening the disbarment of schools, health care providers, and agencies that accept government funds for operation. These litigations have scared a lot of businesses and municipalities to update their website and make them ADA compliant, sometimes falling victim to online extortionists who charged an obscene amount of money by taking advantage of people’s fears of a lawsuit.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

While standards were provided for businesses to accommodate those with physical handicaps, we are still waiting for confirmed guidance for the internet, web-based, and mobile applications. In the meantime, guidelines have been established and are frequently referred to in court.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) who develops international web standards, originally came up with recommendations in 1999 called Web Content Accessibility Guidelines or WCAG 1. As the web and digital technology expanded, WCAG 2 was released in 2008, which also widen the range of people with disabilities it serves to include those who are blind, deaf, learning and cognitively disabled, and those with limited mobility. WCAG 2.1 was released in 2018 to fill in the gaps further and includes mobile responsiveness and other guidelines for those who suffer from poor vision. Both WCAG 2 and 2.1 have valuable principles that every business owner should abide by; however, the 2.0 version is considered a baseline for accessibility, and the 2.1 version should be used as your testing standard to improve usability for all. FYI…Another round of updates is already in the works, known as “Silver” or WCAG 3.

Grey Area in ADA Website Compliance 

Courts have come to varying conclusions whether coverage is limited to physical spaces and whether a company’s website is included in these requirements. Currently, neither Congress nor the Department of Justice (the primary federal government agency responsible for enforcing ADA) has adequately clarified the scope of ADA in terms of website accessibility compliance for private companies. While WCAG 2, Level AA (the success criteria level that most courts generally rely on) is frequently referenced in litigation, some courts have interpreted Title III of the ADA to include websites as public domains that should be accessible to all, while others have not. There seems to be no ADA web-based standard for private entities and for companies who employ less than 15 people; especially, for states like Michigan, who have yet to adopt legislation governing website compliance.

Perks of Being ADA Compliant

The most significant incentive for meeting compliance is knowing that you have done all that you could to be fair and opportunistic for all people, no matter their skill level. It’s just good business practice to have an online presence that can be received by all. Also, the WCAG guidelines have a lot of great suggestions to help make your website read and look better to the end-user, which, if it is engaging to visitors, the longer they remain on your site will essentially increase your sales. Another consideration in becoming ADA compliant is that we, Creative Programs and Systems (CPS), study the trends of Search Engine Optimization and predict that compliance will soon be a ranking factor for organic SERP placement. SERP is the natural placement of your business listing when queried in search engines, not paid advertisements. It’s a win-win!
There are no automatic or instant solutions available from a widget or a plugin to make your website ADA compliant. Updating your website to become ADA compliant is a process and you can start by breaking down sections of your website to make it more manageable. But, really getting a head start is something and CPS can help get you there. It boils down to having proper, clean coding and best practices in software development from a professional team of programmers who can interpret federal and state policies and deliver a product that not only meets compliance but is also modern and informative. If you seek to obtain a reputable website developer, such as CPS, to ensure full compliance with WCAG 2.1, contact us today. CPS also provides Managed IT services, SEO and digital marketing, and customized programming and software that meets your needs. To learn more, visit www.cpsmi.com.

It's Been 9 Years Since Google Unleashed the First Panda Algorithm Update

Monday, February 24th marked the 9-year anniversary that Google unleashed the first Panda algorithm update. On February 24th, 2011, the Google update – later known as Panda, rocked the SEO world. Highly regarded as one of the most significant algorithm updates in the history of Google, the Panda update drastically changed the SEO landscape and how Google deems a website (and page) to be relevant in search results.

According to this article from Search Engine Land, 12% of Google’s search results were drastically changed on that cold day in 2011. Google made it clear in the SEO space that they aimed to drop sites that had “low quality” and “shallow” content. The change had a significant impact on a lot of sites making money and relying on organic traffic as their bread-and-butter.

In fact, Google used to run Panda updates quite frequently during that period. The aim was to hit new websites (several times) that didn’t fit into the new standards of how Google qualified useful sites and quality content. As Google kept running the Panda algorithm over questionable or low-quality sites, their rankings would drop lower and lower – eventually making a low-quality site become “unsearchable.” Now, Panda is a part of the core ranking algorithm and Google does not run standalone updates for Panda anymore.

One of the main things that Panda ended up influencing was how website owners approached their site structure and wrote content for their pages. It forced website owners to not focus on keywords and dubious ranking strategies (grey/black hat SEO) to manipulate Google’s ranking factors. Website owners and content creators now had to take the emphasis off ranking strategies and more on quality, original content, and user experience.

Coronavirus Strikes Fear Causing New Computer Virus

The Coronavirus continues to spread throughout the world and now a new computer virus is dispersing because of it through online circuits. IBM X-Force and Kaspersky has found that hackers are sending spam emails to people under the disguise of information related to Coronavirus in hopes of infecting users' computers and smartphones. The emails are sent with urgent titles to people in Japan, and they think soon to other countries, including the U.S., saying that the country has been taken over by the infection and to click to open and read more. It is common for hackers to use current events with enticing verbiage to get a person to open, download, or click attachments to gain people's private information. Hackers also track the open and click rates inside each email campaign to obtain information on a select group so they can reproduce the scams that perform best for them. Read the article to learn helpful tips that can keep you protected against these attacks.