There are businesses who do not consider accessibility to be a priority. One reason is that they can’t justify the cost of doing it. But without looking at the full picture, they might very well be giving themselves a false sense of cost savings.
Businesses who consider accessibility to be a financial burden should take a closer look at the financial burden of ignoring it.
The cost of not making your website accessible far outweighs the benefits. Run the numbers. This is quickly going to get very expensive.
Here’s what you’re looking at if you’re unexpectedly faced with a web accessibility lawsuit:
LEGAL FEES
How much will it cost to hire a legal team that is knowledgeable on web accessibility and the Americans with Disabilities Act? Legal fees are a significant and real risk for two reasons.
- Digital accessibility is the law. As in, it is a requirement for businesses to make their websites accessible. It hardly matters to the court if a business has never heard of web accessibility or was unaware that they were supposed to be making their website accessible. The burden is on the business to comply with a federal law that has been around for over 30 years.
- Once a web accessibility lawsuit is filed against your business, it cannot be ignored. You will have to hire a legal team and all of the costs that come with it.
Depending on how long this drags out for in court, you’re looking at spending money that would have been better spent on avoiding this lawsuit in the first place.
FINES
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) enforces the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
The fines for violating that are hefty.
▫️$75,000 for the first violation.
▫️$150,000 for subsequent violations.
With the recent update to the ADA that gives public entities a deadline to make their websites and apps accessible, the DOJ is going to be stricter about enforcing it. The fines alone can financially devastate a small business.
Court Order
The court will order your business to make your website and app accessible. This is non-negotiable.
You’ll have no choice but to comply with it or face legal repercussions. So now on top of legal fees and fines, you have to hire a company to make your website compliant, unless you want to do it in-house, which means you pay for training from experts, or you hire employees that already know how to do it. While these kinds of expenses would be there even without a court order, it is the fact that you have a court order that limits how you can approach accessibility, especially if that court order gives you a deadline by which you must comply.
BE PROACTIVE & SAVE MONEY
Eliminate Legal Fees and Fines by having an accessible website!
Without the stress of a court order, you have the freedom to approach accessibility in a way that suits your business.
Here’s your plan
▫️Do it yourself
▫️Hire someone to do it
▫️Combination of the two
We can help with all three options:
▫️We’ll teach you how to do it
▫️We’ll do it for you
Our Accessibility Audit identifies the most common violations that often lead to legal issues for businesses, and shows you exactly where your site stands.
Investing in accessibility is not just a moral imperative or legal requirement, it is a smart financial decision. Run the numbers of what ignoring accessibility can potentially cost you. Do a cost analysis so you can see for yourself that it is better to make your website accessible now than it is to wait for legal troubles. Don’t wait for a lawsuit or fines to realize the importance of accessibility.
Need help figuring this out for your website? Contact us and you won’t have to worry about a web accessibility lawsuit.
