Is your website accessible to people with disabilities: if not, your bank could be vulnerable to a lawsuit filed in the name of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

AuthorMiller, Mark

THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT (ADA), Title III, requires public companies to make their websites accessible to people with disabilities. Each website should be coded so that it not only displays properly on a monitor and works well with a keyboard and mouse but also works with the assistive technology used by people with disabilities--technology such as screen readers that read content out loud for people who are blind or have low vision.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is finalizing the regulatory process, and many public and private sector organizations have been sued for the inaccessibility of their websites under the ADA. The Department of Justice's public position was clarified in the following statement made during the case of The National Association for the Deaf vs. Netflix, where The National Association of the Deaf claimed that Netflix was violating the ADA by not offering closed captioning for all of its streaming video delivered through its website:

"The Department is currently developing regulations specifically addressing the accessibility of goods and services offered via the Web by entities covered by the ADA. The fact that the regulatory process is not yet complete in no way indicates that Web services are not already covered by Title III."

In 2000, Bank of America agreed to improve its user experience for its customers who are blind. This was part of a settlement that included a commitment to install talking ATMs. The settlement opens the gates for Web accessibility claims, and banks such as Wells Fargo, Fleet Bank, Sovereign Bank and First Union, among others, joined the list.

As the DOJ grows closer to completing the regulatory process, many businesses, including those in the banking industry, have begun focusing on the accessibility of their websites to pre-empt any possible litigation. The question is: What constitutes an accessible website?

While there is no direct answer to that question, one of two main guidelines is referenced in most settlements: Section 508 and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. Both of these are commonly used as benchmarks for accessibility.

Section 508 requires that federal agencies' electronic and information technology are accessible to people with disabilities. As a result, the federal government requires that Web and digital products that it purchases comply with Section 508 standards.

WCAG 2.0 are published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). They are divided into...

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