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Hi Dominique, Absolutely, here are some marketing recommendations: 1) Tell existing clients and potential clients about the possibility of lawsuits and the importance of accessibility - many people still aren't even aware of the concept of accessibility for websites so just letting them know it exists and you can help opens up the potential for additional business. 2) Many website owners still have accessibility widgets installed - you can add value by informing them they don't make their website accessible or ADA compliant and some plaintiffs' law firms actually target websites with them installed. And then mention that you can help with real accessibility. 3) Offer a high value but low cost entry to start with. For example, we can review your website's accessibility live for $30. This is very helpful for clients and helps build rapport. 4) Create content that dispels common myths about accessibility and ADA compliance: widgets, 15 employees, small business exceptions, alternative versions of websites, ADA compliance scans / checkers, etc. For example, Shopify store owners are commonly lead to believe Google Lighthouse score of 100 = ADA compliance. 5) Keep content as simple as possible. The better people understand your explanations, the more likely they are gravitate towards you. There's a large source of clients to be had simply from converting people away from widgets. Even if you just inform people of the basics and provide links to resources they may not know about, this can really open up a lot of business. There are so many people that installed a widget because they didn't know better.

You're very welcome - I'm so glad you found the checklist helpful. Thanks so much for commenting.

I think there's a good chance. The only reason overlay widgets have been so pervasive is because people don't understand them.

The lack of genuine intent is an ongoing theme with ADA website lawsuits. A lack of intent can be addressed in a motion to dismiss for lack of standing. The problem for defendants is the expense and risk involved with continuing. Thanks for commenting, Christina.

No, widgets don't make a website accessible / WCAG conformant. overlayfactsheet.com and overlayfalseclaims.com are excellent resources to learn more about why widgets / overlay widgets don't make websites accessible. Note that some plaintiffs' law firms also target websites with overlay widgets installed.

Thank you so much. As far as making the documentation accessible, that depends on the document format (e.g., word document, spreadsheet, PDF, etc.) and content. The principles of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) will apply so there are a fair amount of considerations to make. Using Word's built-in numbering and unordered lists, correct heading structure, marking images as decorative or adding alternative text, ensuring appropriate color contrast, underlining links and using descriptive anchor text will provide a nice baseline for accessibility, especially for simpler documents, but there can be much more to account for depending on the document. Thanks very much for commenting and let me know if this doesn't answer your question.

@@adabook Thank you for the quick reply 🤭. Yes I have a fair share of knowledge on how layout plays out in helping accessibility especially screen readers

@@winifredjohn2792 NP. I wasn't sure if I interpreted "how can documentation itself for the product be made accessible" correctly.

Hey - I wrote a reply to you in the Reddit thread. My condolences on the lawsuit. There's always an initial loss of time and money, but I hope something positive also comes of it.

You're very welcome.

This leads into the if you think this is easy, you might not be aware of all that's involved.

Definitely and thank you for the comment.

Noted, thanks for adding this. I usually don't combine subjects for multiple reasons, but I can think of a few scenarios where mentioning Section 504 would reinforce my point, possibly cause public entities to be more proactive.

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Hi WWade, Audits aren't required for compliance, but they're necessary for compliance. Looking at the new update to ADA Title II regulation, the requirement is only WCAG 2.1 AA conformance. So the DOJ doesn't care how you get there so long as you do. But how do you get there? An audit. There's no way to ensure full conformance without auditing a website. Could you take an informal path to get there and just find and fix the issues you come across browsing 10-20 pages? It's possible, but you're very likely to miss some issues - even if you're an accessibility expert.

This industry is fraught with deception. A good heuristic is if it's accessibility software, don't buy it. This is not to say that software necessarily can't be helpful in some way, but what happens over and over again is the companies oversell the capabilities and then overcharge for it.

Thank you so much - I really appreciate it.

Thanks for commenting. Where did you hear this from? It's the opposite when it comes to widgets - plaintiffs' lawyers will specifically target websites with an overlay widget installed.

@@adabook -my website don’t have a any widget at all and I got a lawsuit coming, they want 20k to settle.

@@adabook -I search who else got lawsuit and found 2 more businesses from the same plaintiff and lawyer

Thanks so much for your interest. Here's some more information along with our contact link: accessible.org/partnerships

You don't have to pay to get the information. It's out there. What you're paying for the course is me researching cases and accessibility, curating the information, distilling it, streamlining it (into step-by-step instructions), and then prioritizing all of the issues and providing strategy. This along with my first-hand experience from years of working with clients that informs the course.

I really appreciate it - thank you for your comment.

Can you add more detail?

You're very welcome and thank you for adding this comment. Any website builder should provide for this - not only for accessibility and supporting their current customers, but out of their own self interest.

Hi John, I apologize for that. 3:02 has the quick answer: a manual audit and remediation. With an audit you'll want to manually evaluate your website against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) technical standards. Once the audit is complete, then you need to remediate or fix any instances of non-conformance you come across. WCAG 2.1 AA is a good version and conformance level to work from when auditing. With 2.1 AA there are 50 success criteria or requirements for conformance. WCAG 2.1 AA conformance is best practice for ADA compliance but if you work through the most commonly claimed issues in litigation first, you can reduce your risk of litigation as you improve accessibility. The top three issues are 1) missing alt text 2) missing programmatic form field labels and 3) a lack of keyboard navigability. Scans like WAVE and AXE can help flag several accessibility issues but, with automation, we're limited to a subset of accessibility issues (approximately 25%) so there are many more to be aware of. And scans can have false negatives and occasionally false positives. The key with scans is to know they're very helpful but also very limited. I hope this helps. Definitely let me know if you have any other questions.

Hi OctaneAndAmmo, Generally, yes. Thanks for your comment and let me know if I can help with anything else.

Absolutely not. overlayfactsheet.com. overlaysdontwork.com.

Great feedback, very helpful. Thanks for adding this comment.

Nothing I said is inaccurate. Of course there are some fixes that can apply sitewide.

The best route is always training so you can take accessibility in-house. If you can make accessibility a part of your process, your content, documents, etc. will already be accessible. Thanks for commenting.

@@adabook I agree entirely, that is pretty much what we did and most of that learning has been predominantly organic - most course offerings just aren't advanced enough on the PDF remediation side of it (likely manually tagging and troubleshooting).

@@QuantumLegal Have you seen @TheAccessibilityGuy channel? He has amazing tutorials on PDF remediation.

Considering a website accessibility audit means testing for use every type of accessibility aid, accounting for physical, visual, auditory, and spectrum/mental sensitivities and issues, and testing the full range of WCAG standards, these numbers are actually super reasonable. It takes a lot of time to test this stuff. Of course you then have to pay to fix the problems, and get re-assessed after. Accessibility compliance isn't cheap because it requires a high level of training and expertise. If you have the funds to train your in-house people, that's cool (and PDFs are a lot different than web). If a company cares though, they'll pay it and be happy to. As more and more places bring web accessibility into law, this industry is going to become huge. It's a shame though, that it can't be done easily and with little expense, as this just increases the barriers to access for the disabled due to budgeting.

​@@jgfellerI completely agree - if you aren't familiar with everything that goes into accessibility services they can seem pricey, but once you learn more about how in-depth good services go and how impactful they are, the prices for many genuine service providers are very fair. And as you said, training takes time (and you have to care) so I always recommend outsourcing services to begin with to make digital assets conformant ASAP and then training concurrently so teams familiarize themselves with accessibility and can start integrating into processes. This is where accessibility becomes much, much easier because it's a part of the process rather than work that takes place after a website is built, etc. Thanks so much for your insight.

Thank you very much for this comment. I really appreciate it.

Hi Frazzyo, it all depends what direction you want to go in. There are no shortage of digital accessibility jobs available. www.a11yjobs.com is a great job board. The W3C's course is also a great start. For ideas on starting your own digital accessibility business / consulting agency, take a look at my business ideas video: th-cam.com/video/FtTk58Uw9p0/w-d-xo.html. Also, I expect to have a course on starting your own accessibility business released in the not too distant future so subscribe to ADACompliance.net/subscribe if you'd like to know about that as soon as it comes out. Thanks for the like and subscribe. I'd browse through some of my videos and see if any topics pique your interest and start exploring down that path. Let me know if you have any other questions. Thanks again.

I looked quickly and didn't see anything that matches that exact name. One thing to keep in mind is AccessiBe has claimed AI for a long, long time - as far back as I can remember (years before Chat-GPT came out). Another is that when we do have any sort of autonomous remediation breakthrough, it will be all over the place. Thanks for commenting and let me know if I can answer any other questions.

My company is looking for an ADA compliance provider. We build sites using Wordpress and the Divi builder because of the speed that we can create content. I am looking for a solution that can help fix any errors in code either by remediation or by recommending what I can do. Are there providers that you recommend?@@adabook

@@user-tb8py7ur3g There's no product I can recommend but we offer audit and remediation services that can help your clients. Accessible.org (accessible.org) has white label and co-brand partnership options that you can seamlessly add-on to your existing offerings. I apologize for not replying earlier - I did not see your comment until last night.

You're very welcome. Thanks for your comment.

X2. I don't understand why digital accessibility doesn't get more attention; it's acknowledged but never a focus.

Hi WWade - There's not a singular answer here and I don't know all of the reasoning why. But here are four things I have observed: 1) Some plaintiffs' law firms in California and New York do send demand letters first, 2) Sometimes a complaint is filed only after a demand letter does not lead to a settlement, 3) California has the Unruh Civil Rights Act and New York has the New York State/City Human Rights Act which means they have their own local laws, 4) New York and California courts have been and still are, to an extent, receptive to this litigation. Also, even today there are only 20-25 active to fairly active law firms in this space. The number continues to tick upwards, but my point is it's mostly just 5 law firms who are dominating this space.

@@adabook Thanks! I've heard or read that some judges or courts are starting to dismiss the drive by, copy and paste complaints, even in New York because it is apparent that the practice is not a positive one (or something like that). Is there any truth to that? Also, does a defendant still have to go to court to get it dismissed?

@@wwade7226 You're very welcome. Yes, we have seen more scrutiny and dismissals. Also, generally, yes, there will need to be some formal legal action by defense counsel but it may be possible to accomplish this remotely in some courts.

I'd try to meet the minimum WCAG threshold while also factoring in the practical visibility. I know what you're getting at - I've been surprised at certain color combinations that actually meet the required color contrast ratios. As far as litigation, color contrast is claimed every now and then but I think it's more because it's easy to find with a scan. In theory, I think slightly insufficient color contrast would be one of the easier issues to defend against. On these types of details, you may want to elaborate in your accessibility statement. That said, I always recommend WCAG conformance.

Thanks for commenting. Yes, they can be countersued but it's unlikely to happen for many reasons. One being that most website owners want to limit their expense.

@@adabook It's a very hypocritical situation. Plaintiff lawyer can break all the rules, can apply overlays (2 of the top 10 plaintiff lawyers have overlays on their sites), and meet only about 60% of WCAG requirements... yet they don't even get touched.

My experience is most people say this because they're overwhelmed by WCAG, but cost can definitely can play a part. Especially, as you alluded to, for small businesses.