Something I’ve always disliked about the web accessibility marketplace is there are no viable options for small businesses and even medium-sized businesses. And this is because many website owners simply cannot afford $3,000 and up for an audit.
So what ends up happening is many website owners choose an overly widget.
And the reason they choose an overlay widget is 1) the overlay vendors outright lie about the capabilities but 2) what I’ve been told is that they view overlay widgets as a temporary stopgap, so they think- the idea is that it’s doing something it may not be doing everything, but it’s doing something in the interim while they get this figured out.
Ultimately, nothing usually comes of the temporary stopgap in the sense that website owners don’t actually take any further action or trying to figure out how to resolve for website accessibility. They install the widget, and they move on.
And this is problematic because, as we know overlay, we just don’t do anything. They don’t do anything, they don’t make your website accessible, they don’t make your website WCAG conformant, they don’t make your website ADA compliant, and they do not stop lawsuits.
And this has been proven time, and again; there are literally hundreds of lawsuits where websites with overlay widgets have nevertheless been targeted in litigation.
And so the point is, there are no viable options for website owners who cannot afford an audit and keep in mind when you are making your website accessible. It’s not just the audit that you need; you also need to remediate.
So it’s not just the cost of the audit, so finding the issues; it’s also the cost of fixing those issues.
And many times, many website accessibility providers do not offer services for remediation, some do, but that specialized service is quite expensive when you come across it, and understandably so, I offer services for website accessibility.
I charge several thousand dollars; the reason I do is because it takes a significant amount of time and effort to do have this done right. And that’s another thing that many website owners don’t know. They go out, and they look for these services, and they compare them one to one.
Manual services vary across provider. Now ideally, you’ll get an excellent quality report either way, but that’s not how it shakes out in reality. In reality, you might get a C audit; you might get an A- audit, or you might get a D audit.
It depends, and I will tell you what something that partially determines what quality you will get is how low- how much you pay for the audit.
It doesn’t necessarily mean that’s the case, but when website owners inevitably they look for freelancers that charge less, what ends up happening is they get less; they get much less.
And the problem is that as a website owner who is new to accessibility, you don’t know what you’re getting in return you’re only- you’re relying upon in good faith upon those providers, and a lot of providers will outright lie to you in what you will get, or you will distort reality to paint a picture where you think we’re getting more than are.
And so it’s really been difficult for website owners to actually get genuine services that provide real accessibility. And so this has left them with no viable options, and this is partially why I created the ADA compliance course.
I created the ADA compliance course because it addresses these problems: First, it’s affordable, whereas manual audits are not; the ADA compliance course is. Second, it’s genuine, so whereas overlay widgets do nothing, this course involves manual work.
And then that is because it trains your team on how to find, so audit and fix, remediate these different issues as you go through the lessons in the course.
So the course is already prioritized by the most commonly claimed issues in litigation, so you’re going to significantly reduce your risk of litigation while significantly improving the accessibility of your website.
The course is not meant to be perfect. It’s not meant to make your website fully WCAG conformant. But what it is meant to do is resolve for the accessibility issues that are most commonly claimed in litigation.
And this is something whether it’s you, whether it’s a contractor, whether it’s your assistant, someone is able to go through the lessons in the course and take action as they’re going.
So they’re being trained, and they’re also taking action as they go through the course, and I’ve got all of the strategy components, all of the prioritization aspects, that’s all included in the course, I’ve written that out for you.
But this is going to help any small business owner get through website accessibility in the most affordable way possible, but also in a way that genuinely addresses accessibility.
So that you’re not using an overlay, you’re not using anything fake, this is a real response to making your website accessible so that you can prevent litigation and improve access to people with disabilities. That’s the ADA compliance course; that’s what really it all comes down to.
So this is something that is doable, but it’s just- this hasn’t been in the marketplace until January, when I released it. So this is going to help small business owners tremendously. With this training, your team is going to be more knowledgeable on accessibility.
So what this means is you are less reliant upon third party service providers. And this also means that less accessibility issues will be introduced when content is uploaded or code is edited or created.
And so, ultimately, your risk of litigation is reduced because your website is more accessible and your website is more accessible to people with disabilities.
