I finally got around to watching some of the other videos that rank high on YouTube for ADA website compliance and search terms, and two of those videos were from lawyers.
And one of those videos, the lawyer gave a brief overview of the legal landscape and then was selling her- a bundle, a bundle for ADA website compliance, and it consists of, to paraphrase, an ADA and WCAG checklists, a website accessibility template, and then plugins to ensure your website is in compliance.
Well, plugins don’t make your website accessible, and they don’t ensure compliance, and then it was interesting because the bundle really then comes down to the statement in the checklist, and that bundle has been sold for $127.
But I have those available. I have my own template, accessibility statement template, and I have a checklist and a full guide available on accessible.org for free, and you don’t have to enter your email. Those are just free outright; you can download them right now.
So I thought that was interesting. I’m actually tempted to buy the bundle and just see what you actually get and review that because I would be very interested to see what that bundle is.
But then, in the video, she also said- so the good news is that this particular bundle that I put together, and all the legwork I’ve done for you so that you don’t have to sit there and waste any time to figure this stuff out on your own- because trust me it’s complicated.
And then she said, it took me even some time, and I had to collaborate with my fellow lawyers to put this together for you. So- but you can get this- this is free stuff, this is stuff I’ve made available for free, accessible.org, and you can find everything you need to know, and I’ll link to it below.
So that bundle is available I thought it was interesting, and I think this- I’ll continue on with another video. But this gets to a theme that just because someone has a license to practice law does not mean that they understand this space, she said it’s complicated.
I wouldn’t call it complicated. I would just say that it has multiple layers and that you just have to understand the different aspects of it. So there’s a technical aspect to it; there’s a legal aspect to it, and there’s a practical aspect to it, and you have to really work with all of those different aspects and understand them.
It’s not that complicated when it comes down to it, and I’ve- what I’ve done if you look through the ADA book and you watch my videos, I really distilled it down into the basics, and a lot of my videos overlap.
So I know I have a lot of videos, but that’s not to- that doesn’t lend to the complexity of ADA website compliance. It’s more so me trying to present the information in as many ways as possible because this is all fairly simple.
If you want to know the best practices for- to make your website, quote-unquote ADA compliant, the best practice is to be fully WCAG 2.1 AA conformant and have an accessibility statement posted on your website, that’s it.
That’s all this comes down to the rest is just filtering through the different offerings that are available through sellers and then understanding the best ways to approach conformance and how to get there.
But, and especially with regards to a checklist and a statement, this is fairly simple stuff. You just have to understand it so- I can understand how someone, you do need to put multiple hours into this. But you really don’t have to put that many hours into it because I’ve already done all of that.
And what I’m telling you now is, after having sorted through everything, it’s not that complex. It’s just that the way it’s been presented, it’s difficult to sort through what is out there.
So again, the theme is just because someone is licensed to practice law does not mean they understand the space. I’m going to link to her video in the description. I’ll also link to my free WCAG guide and checklist, and those two are separate by the way.
The checklist is just a quick rundown, so you know, okay, these are the different accessibility issues under the Web Content Accessible Guidelines, and then the guide is a full explanation, and it breaks everything down in plain English.
So it’s my interpretation of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. It doesn’t mean it’s completely accurate, but it’s very, very good, and then, my accessibility statement is customizable.
So, you know, it really is- what the assessment statement is; it’s based on the Department of Justice’s private enforcement actions. So in the settlement agreements for those different enforcement actions, I’ve looked through what the DOJ has mandated, and I’ve incorporated that into an accessibility statement.
But you don’t have to include all of those mandates that have been in the different DOJ settlement agreements really just brings awareness to all of the different things that you could include in accessibility statement.
But again, this is your accessibility statement. It’s customizable, but with this template, I want it to be comprehensive and give you all of the different- bring forward all of the different requirements that have been- that have come from the DOJ, so you know, all of the different considerations that are available.
It’s exhaustive and unnecessarily so, but I wanted to be thorough, and so you can fashion a really good accessibility statement from that template. But those, again, those are available for free, and so.
