The past few years have seen a rise in lawsuits against businesses for violating Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) with regards to website accessibility. In this DealerOn University we review exactly what is happening, what it could mean to you, and the steps you can take to protect your dealership.
ADA Law & Websites
The ADA’s purpose was to ensure that the world was as accessible to disabled individuals as it is to everyone else. When the law was first enacted in 1990, this meant everything from providing ramps in addition to stairs to lever-shaped door handles. Since then, the internet has become a vital part of daily life and the ADA has been interpreted to apply to it as well.
The biggest issue facing courts and businesses with websites is that ADA laws were created before the internet was available to the masses. Lawmakers have been either unwilling or unable to create clear regulations that can be applied to business websites of all types. Applying regulations designed for brick-and-mortar business establishments to websites has essentially created a “Wild West” situation for the courts. In the absence of clear federal guidelines, it has been left up to individual courts to decide how to apply these regulations to individual websites, with far-reaching consequences for businesses across the U.S.
The biggest issue facing courts and businesses with websites is that ADA laws were created before the internet was available to the masses.
As an operator of a brick-and-mortar store with a showroom website, your dealership is a potential target for an ADA lawsuit. There are lawyers actively seeking out noncompliance for targeted suits. The tactic has borne fruit: website and mobile app lawsuits now represent 20% of all ADA Title III filings. Most ADA-related issues on websites will be technical problems with applications such as screen-readers being unable to interpret website code.
These types of highly technical problems can only be solved by deploying advanced technical solutions.
Defending Your Website Against ADA Lawsuits
accessiBe is a technology company dedicated to making the internet accessible to everyone. With over 150,000 websites served, they are well on their way to making their dream a reality.
DealerOn has partnered with accessiBe to bring that value to our dealer partners. Protect yourself from frivolous lawsuits and serve the disabled community more effectively by adding accessiBe. accessiBe solves compliance issues, shielding you from these rapidly increasing lawsuits. accessiBe is a plug-in solution that integrates seamlessly with all DealerOn websites and complies with worldwide accessibility laws, most notably the ADA.
accessiBe monitors your website for ADA errors and remedies them.
accessiBe conducts audits on your website every 24 hours and the sophisticated technology fixes most problems automatically. Users will never know that a site has been updated. They simply get the best possible experience and the peace of mind that comes with knowing your dealership recognizes their individual needs. This ensures your site is accessible to customers with a wide range of disabilities, such as visual impairments including blindness and cataracts, motor and mobility disabilities, achromatopsia, epilepsy, cognitive disorders, and disabilities that come with aging.
With a 96% success rate and readiness within 48 hours of installation, accessiBe gets to work as soon as it is installed on your site. The speed and accuracy of accessIbe makes it an ideal solution to shield your website from frivolous lawsuits.
“Within the first 24 hours after DealerOn implemented accessiBe onto all of our websites it began getting us in compliance. Within the first week we were 99% compliant. They understood the urgency and took action to deliver ADA compliance. They have been communicating every step of the way and we have full confidence in the services provided by the DealerOn team!”
– Stephanie Beck, Jim Shorkey Auto Group
Protect yourself from lawsuits and better serve your disabled customers by adding accessiBe. Schedule your demo today.
