If you’ve received a lawsuit contending that your website is not sufficiently accessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), take it seriously. In 2024, ADA website accessibility lawsuits continue to pose a significant risk, particularly for businesses with digital properties like websites and apps. New York remains the leading state for these cases, primarily due to a high concentration of plaintiffs and law firms actively pursuing these suits.
Below are ten steps your company should take immediately after receiving notice of a suit or demand letter or as a proactive plan to help avoid one.
1. Involve Legal Counsel
The ADA landscape in 2024 is complex, and having legal expertise on your side is crucial. If you have in-house counsel, they should be your primary contact for responding to lawsuits or demand letters.
Consider engaging a specialized outside firm with experience in accessibility and ADA compliance, especially as defense firms continue to navigate these intricate cases. Legal experts can help you understand the nuances of accessibility law and provide a robust defense strategy to manage the heightened scrutiny that cases are facing in federal courts this year.
2. Assess Past and Current Accessibility Efforts
Evaluate the accessibility knowledge and experience of key stakeholders across your digital lifecycle. Reviewing past and current actions to address accessibility can help define the scope of potential issues.
In 2024, there’s a trend of plaintiffs targeting gaps in companies' accessibility efforts. It is crucial to thoroughly document and assess your past initiatives to strengthen your defense or guide proactive improvements.
3. Engage Accessibility Experts
Most organizations lack the in-house expertise to fully address digital accessibility challenges, especially as the legal landscape evolves. Engaging third-party accessibility experts can provide critical guidance on compliance, remediation, and insights into the latest accessibility issues observed in lawsuits.
Experts can help create standard documentation for your legal, development, and QA teams, ensuring your approach aligns with best practices and current legal expectations. For more details on choosing the right accessibility partner and why relying solely on widgets might be problematic, check out our blog on finding a web accessibility partner.
4. Develop an Accessibility Statement
Creating an accessibility statement is a proactive measure demonstrating your commitment to accessibility. An up-to-date statement can also indicate your efforts toward compliance if you face legal action. This statement should outline your current accessibility status, plans, and commitment to inclusivity, acting as both an internal policy and an external declaration of your company’s values.
To learn more about crafting an effective accessibility statement, read our guide on what an accessibility statement is and how to write one.
5. Audit Your Top Pages and User Flows
Plaintiffs often target websites' most crucial aspects—top pages and key user flows. Begin your remediation efforts by thoroughly testing and auditing these areas using reliable tools aligned with the latest international accessibility standards, WCAG 2.2, released in 2023.
While free tools can offer initial insights, a comprehensive analysis, including feedback from users of assistive technology, often requires third-party expertise. This thorough approach is essential to identify and rectify the issues most commonly flagged in lawsuits.
6. Create a Remediation Plan
Once you’ve identified accessibility issues, develop a detailed remediation plan. Given the increased scrutiny in 2024, your plan should include specific actions, resource allocations, and clear timelines for addressing identified problems. Investing in design, UX, development, and testing will ensure robust fixes. Companies that effectively manage remediation reduce legal risks and enhance their customer experience, an increasingly critical factor as digital accessibility gains prominence.
7. Train Your Teams on Accessibility Principles
Accessibility starts and ends with your team. In 2024, there’s a heightened focus on training internal teams on accessibility principles like perceptibility, operability, understandability, and robustness.
Ensuring that your teams are well-versed in these principles fosters a culture of accessibility, making compliance easier to maintain and legal risks easier to mitigate over time. For practical tips on implementing accessibility training across your organization, explore our guide on how to conduct WCAG training.
8. Document Your Accessibility Efforts
Thorough documentation has become essential as courts and plaintiffs closely scrutinize companies’ accessibility efforts. Once your digital presence meets accessibility standards, document the processes, standards, and principles that guide your approach.
This documentation will support continuity, assist in onboarding new team members, and serve as a critical resource for future legal challenges.
9. Hold Your Vendors Accountable for Accessibility
A significant number of accessibility lawsuits in 2024 involve third-party platforms and vendors. Whether it’s your e-commerce platform, payment processor, or content management system, it’s crucial to hold vendors accountable for their role in your digital accessibility.
Engage in discussions with your vendors about enhancing their accessibility features, and be prepared to seek alternative partners if they fail to meet necessary standards. This proactive stance can help protect your business from shared liability in accessibility lawsuits.
10. Make Accessibility an Ongoing Commitment
Maintaining accessibility is not a one-time project but an ongoing commitment. In 2024, the emphasis has shifted towards continuous integration of accessibility across all digital updates, including new content, website redesigns, and third-party integrations. Regular audits, user testing, and ongoing training should be embedded into your business processes to ensure your site remains accessible and compliant with the evolving WCAG 2.2 standards. Staying proactive in this area can significantly reduce the likelihood of facing legal action.
Get Started Now
Understanding your site’s accessibility needs is the first step to becoming fully compliant. For a comprehensive roadmap on how to navigate digital accessibility, download our free ebook, Web Accessibility: Your Roadmap.
Ready to take action? Please feel free to contact us for a free consultation and get on the path to ADA compliance today.
