Website accessibility continues to gain legal importance
Walmart has made several marketing blunders in the last 12 months. Most noted is their attempt to go 'upscale' in their advertising and product lines. But few observers noted that their web presence was a bubbling cauldron of customer discontent. The problem: accessibility.
We've been advocating to our clients for over two years that recently introduced legislation in the U.S. Congress regarding online accessibility standards was an important development for anyone with a commercial online presence. Much as a Stop sign is not a suggestion but a command, legislation recently passed by the House and signed into law by the President, is unequivocal.
Walmart is learning this the hard way. As late as yesterday, disabled customers who claimed they were denied equal access to Walmart products and services online, are proceeding with a class action law suit against the company. As of today, Wal-Mart has moved rapidly to correct the flaws in its website's product displays and shopping cart and hopes to have the improvements result in the end of suit.
Lesson: It is very much worth the minor investment required to service the disabled online and be in accordance with federal laws. Though the disabled may be a small part of your overall audience, they deserve to be serviced to the fullest extent possible.
If you're interested in the specifics of particular legislation regarding accessibility, here's a list of relevant laws.
If you live in the United States, applicable laws include ADA, IDEA, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Sections 504 and Section 508), and the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (Section 255).
* The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 was the first major legislative effort to even the playing field for individuals with disabilities. Section 504 was intended to prevent intentional or unintentional discrimination based on a person's disability. Section 508 took the legislation a step further with regard to the Internet by explicitly barring the Federal government from procuring electronic and information technology goods and services that are not fully accessible to people with disabilities. This was the first-ever US federal accessibility standard specifically for the Internet.
* The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), passed in 1990, and although there is still not a definitive answer on the applicability to the Internet, an increasing number of cases have been brought to the legal system involving the Intenet and ADA in recent years.
* The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) provides for a "free appropriate public education" for all children with disabilities from preschool through high school.
* The Telecommunications Act of 1996 (Section 255) "requires manufacturers of telecommunications equipment and customer premises equipment to ensure that the equipment is...accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilties, if readily achievable"