On December 30, 2022, Shivan Bassaw filed a lawsuit against Clean Cause, Inc — a company that sells organic beverages.

It is yet another example of a lawsuit based around digital compliance with the American with Disabilities Act (ADA). And, as with almost all of these cases, it could have been avoided.

The plaintiff is claiming that the Clean Cause website isn’t fully compliant with the ADA’s digital guidelines.

In other words, their website is too difficult to use if you have certain disabilities. Just as public spaces have to be accessible to those with disabilities, many websites do, as well.

American court rulings in the past have typically said that if a website is tied to a physical location (like a website for a grocery store), then it needs to be accessible by people with disabilities. If that sounds like a murky standard, you aren’t alone. Many business owners are confused about how compliant their website needs to be.

Efforts to enact regulations to make this issue clearer have not been pursued. Until that happens, companies like Clean Cause will have to do all they can to be accessible.

The main thing that Clean Cause and other companies can do to get rid of a lawsuit (or avoid getting sued altogether) is to proactively make their website accessible.

To do that, most people follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). That is a technical benchmark used in many European countries. Companies can also do their own independent testing, just to make sure their websites really are easy to navigate for those with disabilities.

There are many standard ways web developers can make a website accessible for everyone, including:

• Providing “alt” tags on all media files
• Add transcripts for audio and video content
• Make your website effective for screen readers
• Use descriptive html tags and anchor text for links
• Add in links to skip navigation tools
• Among many others

ADA Compliance Firm specializes in getting company websites to be 100% accessible to those with disabilities. That increases how many people can benefit from your company’s online presence, and it also protects you from any potential lawsuits based on the ADA. 

We also get your website compliant with the increasingly complicated rules surrounding Data Privacy — including GDPR. That gives you peace of mind about your website and its potential risks.

If you are interested in staying ahead of the curve and avoiding any kind of liability, contact us today! We would be happy to give you a quote and start making your website fully ADA compliant.