Summary

This blog explores the increase in accessibility lawsuits targeting digital entities and how adherence to compliance guidelines can reduce legal exposure, emphasizing audits and inclusive practices.

The Internet has become a key to easy and efficient communication, commerce, entertainment, and services. Due to this, accessibility compliance has become a necessity to ensure that even people with disabilities can access these platforms.

However, this is where the major challenge arises because of the unclear ADA compliance regulations and the reluctance of some businesses and digital publishers to take proactive measures to help avoid accessibility lawsuits.

This trend was proven to be ongoing when it was found that in 2023, there was a 14.1% rise in ADA digital accessibility lawsuits as compared to 2022. A study by UsableNet also found that 97% of accessibility lawsuits target websites because they are easier to monitor with the availability of free software for the same.

It also predicted a 300% increase in ADA claims against SaaS platforms and mobile apps once they are monitored as frequently and easily as websites.

A direct consequence of this non-compliance tends to be on the company’s revenue, cash flow, legal expenses, and brand image. To help you avoid such issues, keep reading to understand how accessibility compliance will help mitigate legal risks in the digital publishing landscape.

Table of Contents:

What is Accessibility Compliance?

Accessibility compliance refers to adhering to the standards, guidelines, and regulations that help ensure that all digital products, services, and content are also accessible to individuals with disabilities.

To achieve digital accessibility, you must understand and follow WCAG principles and guidelines, ensure Section 508 compliance, and adhere to other accessibility laws around the world.

This will help you remove barriers and make inclusive digital content and platforms that are equally accessible to everyone, even to disabled individuals.

Also Read: The Legal Requirements for Digital Accessibility in the UK: A Guide for Businesses

Need for Digital Publishing Accessibility to Mitigate Legal Risks

The importance of digital publishing accessibility is:

1. Legal and Regulatory Compliance

Due to the rise of the Internet and, hence, digital platforms, several countries have made it a legal obligation to follow accessibility guidelines and make the content inclusive for a diverse audience.

This means that if your business does not comply with these guidelines, it could face the risk of accessibility lawsuits, penalties, and expensive settlements.

Additionally, it will also harm the reputation of your businesses, even if your role was that of a digital publisher who helped them create the non-compliant platform or content.

Thus, digital publishing accessibility is important to avoid legal risks and showcase a commitment to social responsibility and inclusive practices.

2. Inclusivity and Equal Access

Digital accessibility is important in publishing because it will help you ensure that even individuals with disabilities can access and engage with the content published on multiple digital platforms.

Thus, you will be able to remove barriers and give equal opportunities to individuals with auditory, motor, visual, and cognitive impairments. It will help you give equal access to information, entertainment, educational resources, communication, and other services, helping you reach a wider audience.

3. Business Growth and Market Expansion

By following the web accessibility standards, you will be able to reduce the legal risks and thus ensure positive user experience and feedback and improved customer satisfaction and loyalty.

This will help you reach more businesses and individuals who need your services, which will not only give you access to new markets but also grow your digital publishing business.

Therefore, your brand image, revenue, bottom line, and business sustainability will improve.

4. Compatibility with Assistive Technologies

One way to ensure accessibility compliance is to make digitally published content compatible with assistive technologies like screen magnifiers, screen readers, and other alternative input devices.

These technologies will let individuals with disabilities access the content effectively.

It also allows you as a digital publisher to future-proof your content so that it remains accessible and usable even with advancements in these technologies. This will reduce the future risk of accessibility lawsuits.

5. Adaptability to Different Devices

Adhering to web accessibility standards like ADA compliance will ensure that your content can be accessed and displayed accurately across multiple devices, such as desktops, laptops, tablets, mobile phones, wearables, and e-readers.

Accessibility compliance will help you ensure that accessibility is maintained even with technological advancements or changes in device preferences.

Thus, digital publishing accessibility will protect you from future legal risks related to non-compliance with accessibility guidelines.

6. Content Reusability and Repurposing

Another importance of accessible content is that it tends to be structured and formatted in a manner that makes it easier to reuse and repurpose it.

For instance, you can repurpose content for different formats, like creating PDFs, eBooks, and audiobooks. Additionally, such flexible content will support future formats and platforms like AR, VR, and voice assistants without much change.

All of this will also help you make your content inclusive, thus future-proofing it against potential accessibility lawsuits.

3 Accessibility Best Practices to Ensure Digital Accessibility

The essential accessibility best practices that you must follow in your digital publishing to reduce legal risks are:

1. Refer to and Follow Accessibility Guidelines

To ensure accessibility compliance and reduce the risk of lawsuits, you must refer to accessibility guidelines like ADA compliance and Section 508 compliance.

These guidelines will help you ensure that your content is inclusive for all individuals, even the ones with disabilities. One of the ways you can ensure digital accessibility is by ensuring that your developers and website designers are using JavaScript, CSS, and HTML correctly.

Additionally, make sure that the content is organized logically so that humans and machines can understand its layout.

Make sure you follow accessibility best practices like adding alt text to images and captions and transcripts to videos. Lastly, your HTML or other codes must be provided with extra attributes so that assistive devices can be used easily and effectively.

This includes screen readers, Braille readers for reading or hearing text and images, screen magnifiers for individuals with poor vision, and joystick navigators or keyboards for individuals who cannot use the mouse or other standard input controls.

2. Conduct an Accessibility Audit

Conducting accessibility audits is one of the best ways to ensure accessibility compliance and thus reduce the risk of lawsuits.

You can manually conduct accessibility audits and evaluate critical aspects like color contrast, heading structure, alt text for images, keyboard navigation, and semantic markup.

Also, use assistive technologies to evaluate the accessibility from the user’s perspective. For instance, carrying out keyboard-only tests for individuals who cannot use mouse or touch interfaces.

In the keyboard-only test, all interactive parts of the site will be tested by using keyboard keys like ‘tab’ for moving between multiple interactive elements, ‘return/enter’ for selecting links or buttons, and ‘up/down arrows’ to select an option or button from a given set.

You can also resort to automated testing through the use of web accessibility testing tools and their capabilities. These tools will help you scan websites and digital products to identify common accessibility issues such as missing alt text or improper heading structure.

The insights gathered will help you identify areas for improvement, which, when worked on, will ensure accessibility compliance and thus mitigate legal risks.

3. User and Expert Testing

During your accessibility audits, carry out user and expert testing sessions. To gather first-hand feedback about the accessibility of the content and platforms, involve individuals with disabilities.

However, to get detailed feedback and recommendations for improving accessibility compliance, involve specialists to conduct assessments. This will help you find your areas of improvement and thus reduce the risk of accessibility lawsuits.

Also Read: Top 6 Reasons Why Your B2B Organization Should Care About Digital Accessibility

Conclusion

As a digital publisher, you must ensure accessibility compliance not just because of moral obligation but also because of its strategic benefits. The most important one is that it will protect you from accessibility lawsuits, penalties, and settlements. It will also improve your company’s brand image while letting you reach a wider audience and new markets.

By using Hurix Digital‘s accessibility solutions, you can comply with accessibility guidelines and build inclusive applications that can easily be accessed even by individuals with disabilities. It will also help you conduct accessibility audits and implement best practices so that you can provide an equal user experience for all.

Contact Hurix Digital to know more about how it can help you with accessibility compliance and mitigating legal risks in digital publishing.