More than one billion people living with disabilities worldwide are affected by the lack of assistive technologies and non-adapted means of communication. Guarantee equal opportunities to your online content for all page visitors with an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant website.
Thrive Internet Marketing Agency offers ADA compliance with an advanced artificial intelligence (AI) tool that allows page visitors to navigate your website without any issues. We provide online users the ADA compliance tool they need to avoid ADA website compliance lawsuits, leverage ADA tax incentives and make them a life-long customer.
Reach out to us today to ensure your website complies with the ADA, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), Section 508 and EN 301549 standards!
ADA Compliance: Securing Equal Access to Online Content
The global awareness of disability-inclusive development has significantly increased over time. Most countries have enforced laws that protect the civil rights of disabled people, prohibiting discrimination and ensuring a barrier-free environment in all buildings and establishments. Although this is a progressive move, what is not universal is adherence to the web accessibility standards.
The web promises independent participation among online users. However, for people with disabilities to enjoy its benefits and the wealth of information it offers, website ADA compliance is essential.
Learn the foundations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and other web standards and keep your website ADA compliant.
We also discuss the ADA tax credit eligibility requirements and benefits to motivate you to make the necessary ADA accommodations and take advantage of the ADA website compliance tax credit.
The Goal of Americans with Disabilities Act and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
he World Health Organization (WHO) reports approximately 15 percent of the global population living with disabilities that affect their daily life, including online shopping and web browsing. To address the need for web accessibility, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has created the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
WCAG is a technical standard that aims to explain ADA accessibility and guide web developers on how to make website ADA compliant. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines have been adopted by governments around the world and are now part of various legislation, including the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 508 and EN 301549.
In 2017, WCAG 2.1 was introduced to address web changes and technological advancements. WCAG 2.1 builds on the previous versions of WCAG and aims to make online content more accessible to a broader range of persons with disabilities, including:
- Deafness
- Blindness
- Photosensitivity
- Hearing loss
- Low vision
- Learning disabilities
- Cognitive limitations
- Limited movement
- Speech disabilities
ADA website compliance does not indicate a specific adherence to only ADA requirements or WCAG standards. Website ADA compliance is an all-encompassing term –a gold standard of creating websites that are accessible to all users, regardless of physical or cognitive ability.
Does My Website Need to be ADA Compliant?
Yes. Website ADA compliance is not an option but a necessity. Many countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada, now require WCAG compliance for all websites. In the United States, Section 44 ADA tax credit of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Code was enacted to provide up to $5,000 ADA tax incentives for website accessibility and encourage more small businesses and organizations to take part in providing equal access to online resources.
But the ADA IRS tax credit is just one reason to make your website ADA compliant. Whether you’re legally obliged to make your website accessible in your service locations, aiming for the ADA tax credit 2021 benefits or your website falls under the Americans with Disabilities Act, keeping your ADA website compliant is key to ensuring business success.
Ignoring ADA assistance and web accessibility guidelines puts your business at risk for an ADA website compliance lawsuit, which can potentially damage your financial capabilities, credibility and marketability. Companies and organizations that do not prioritize website ADA compliant standards must:
- Get their website up to speed with the WCAG 2.1 criteria
- Implement mandatory website updates to ensure ADA web compliance
- Place an accessibility policy on their website
- Endure legal fees for failure to comply with ADA guidelines
- Pay a possible settlement to the plaintiff
- Ensure their web development team undergoes ADA assistance and web accessibility training
- Beyond expanding your online reach, claiming your ADA compliant tax credit and improving your business’ sustainability, WCAG compliance and ADA web compliance are your legal and moral obligations. To avoid the ramifications of ADA web compliant violations and benefit from the ADA website compliance tax credit, you need to start asking yourself, “Is my website ADA compliant?” If not, “How to make my website ADA compliant?”
Let us walk you through the ADA requirements, ADA tax credit 2021 qualifications and how our ADA services can benefit your company. Thrive Internet Marketing Agency is here to help you understand the ADA standards and ADA compliance tax credit criteria, learn the basics of web accessibility guidelines and navigate the intricacies of WCAG compliance. Contact us and learn more about our ADA services.
Why You Need An ADA Compliant Website
Create An All-Inclusive Online Experience
As a business owner and marketer, your web design speaks volumes about the quality of your products and the level of your customer support. Show your clients, prospects and key stakeholders your commitment to providing the best possible service by investing in an ADA compliant website.
ADA compliant websites ensure:
Adherence to the Law
The law protects disabled people against discrimination across establishments and platforms and websites are no exception to the rule. In 2017 alone, 7,633 ADA website compliance lawsuits were filed and this number grew exponentially by nearly 200 percent in 2018. If you’re an eCommerce website or a business with a physical location, you’re at a much higher risk of being sued for failure to meet WordPress ADA compliance guidelines. Capitalizing on ADA website compliance services protects your company from serial web accessibility plaintiffs. Asking the question “how do I make my website ADA compliant?” to the right professionals who can assist you is the first step to making sure you are on the right side of the law. It saves you several thousands of dollars in hiring a defense attorney and litigating an ADA web compliant case.
Accessibility for Everyone
Millions of people with disabilities worldwide require information from online sources and have technological needs that deserve better attention and awareness. An ADA compliance website gives page visitors equal opportunities to access your online content and make informed decisions. As we transition to a more user-centric online landscape, now’s the best time to start learning how to make my website ADA compliant and take action to improve your site functionalities. Strict adherence to web accessibility guidelines enhances your customers’ web experience and facilitates memorable brand interactions. More importantly, ADA compliant websites make online users feel valued and respected.
ADA Tax Credit Eligibility
Small businesses that prioritize web accessibility and meet the ADA tax credit 2021 qualifications can get up to $5,000 IRS ADA tax credit and/or ADA tax deduction. These two ADA tax incentives are a big help to industry leaders and marketers who want to improve their site accessibility and expand their online reach but are struggling financially. ADA compliance website tax credit covers 50 percent of the total ADA compliance website expenditures you’ve incurred in a taxable year. With the ADA IRS tax credit, you don’t just save a significant amount of money, but you also have the opportunity to invest your savings in necessary website modifications and brand developments.
Better Conversion Potential
Disabilities present themselves in various forms, including visual impairments, motor disabilities, developmental delays and hearing disabilities. Businesses that optimize their website to cater to this segment of the population can go a long way towards helping more people fulfill their information needs. Having an ADA compliance website allows you to keep different audience segments engaged. The more individuals who can access your website, the higher your chances of improving your retention rate. More importantly, ADA website compliance gives you the opportunity to turn more page visitors into paying customers and, eventually, loyal brand advocates.
Long-term Profitability
ADA compliant websites increase your bottom line and promote customer loyalty. Even with a lower overall income, disabled people account for billions of dollars in spending power. A new report published by the American Institutes of Research (AIR) found that inclusive marketing practices and ADA compliance help businesses tap into the purchasing power of approximately 20 million U.S. working-age adults with disabilities. Disabled U.S. adults have a total disposable income of about $490 billion. The longer you wait to create an inclusive online experience, the more conversion opportunities and revenue streams you could lose to your competitors.
Competitive Advantage
Many businesses commit the mistake of overlooking persons with disabilities in the marketplace. What most companies fail to realize, however, is that disabled people make up a huge economic group that represents about 10 percent of total online spending. ADA website compliance is your key to staying ahead of the competition. Improve access to your products and services and safeguard your brand from ADA website compliance lawsuits by learning how to make a website ADA compliant. Gain your competitive edge with Thrive’s ADA services.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Best Practices
Many SEO elements, such as image alt tags, captions, video transcription, sitemaps, text size and color contrast, overlap with ADA standards. By complying with web standards, you improve your SEO efforts and leave a positive impression of your brand with your online users and search engines. A key element of WCAG compliant websites is being accessible to screen readers. Screen readers are an assistive technology that crawls web pages to render text and image content as speech or braille output. This allows people who are blind, visually impaired or have learning disabilities to access the information on your website. ADA web compliance enables search engines and screen readers to crawl your online content and deliver information to people with disabilities without a glitch.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Best Practices
A Click Away Pound study revealed that only 11 percent of people with disabilities would ask for help from friends or family members when they encounter an access barrier. This means the majority of disabled people who are shopping or browsing online will click away and seek out an ADA compliance website when they cannot access your web content. The internet facilitates quick word-of-mouth marketing so it only takes a single online review or recommendation to influence other people’s perception of your brand. Having an ADA web compliant platform is an effective way to expand your online reach and attract more customers to your website. Additionally, maintaining an ADA website compliant protects your online reputation, making you the go-to business of your target audience and their connections.
How Your Business Can Get ADA Website Compliance Tax Credit and ADA Tax Deduction
Avoid Litigations and Offset the Cost of Your Site Updates
You’ve probably heard of the Section 44 ADA tax credit of the IRS Code, but what exactly is IRS ADA tax credit and which businesses are eligible for this tax incentive?
The ADA compliance tax credit was enacted in 1990 to assist small businesses in removing the barriers that prevent individuals with disabilities from accessing websites. The ADA compliant tax credit covers half of the eligible expenditures or the costs spent on improving website accessibility. This means, depending on your total expenses, you can get up to $5,000 ADA tax credit and/or tax deduction when you prioritize ADA website compliance.
Section 44 ADA tax credit applies to small businesses with no more than 30 full-time employees and have earned a maximum total revenue of $1 million in the taxable year. But depending on your qualification, you may get either ADA compliance tax credit or ADA tax deduction, or a combination of both ADA tax incentives.
To claim your ADA IRS tax credit, you need to fill out the ADA tax credit form 8826 and complete the requirements for the other tax credits you’re applying for. Be sure to consult with your tax preparer to find out if you qualify for the ADA compliant tax credit and get professional assistance in answering the ADA tax credit form 8826.
Have more questions about the Section 44 ADA tax credit? Check out this blog for a more in-depth discussion of the ADA compliance website tax credit and the general instructions on how to use the ADA tax credit form 8826.
Ready to Make Your Website WCAG Compliant?
If you’re still on the fence, asking, “Does my website need to be ADA compliant?” The answer lies in your business’ core values and your custom web design’s functionalities. Does your website cater to all online users? Does it facilitate a seamless web experience for people with disabilities? Does it follow the ADA compliant website guidelines?
In today’s cut-throat digital landscape, ADA web compliance is imperative to accommodate your target audience’s needs and future-proof your brand. Additionally, if your goal is to earn ADA tax credit and/or ADA tax deduction and protect your customers’ rights at the same time, learning about the ADA compliance website tax credit guidelines is a good place to start.
ADA assistance is a vital part of digital marketing. If you value your customers and page visitors, you would not think twice about educating your staff on how to make a website ADA compliant and implementing the ADA compliant website guidelines.
Take the first step towards making your website more accessible and profitable. Partner with Thrive and let us teach you how to make your website ADA compliant for IRS ADA tax credit eligibility.
Thrive’s team of ADA experts know that once your website is compliant, maintenance is needed to keep it that way. You can rest assured that at no additional cost, your dedicated ADA compliance specialist will implement changes and ensure your website is always aligned with ADA regulations. Unlike many web design and development agencies, as a part of our package we offer you ongoing tech support at no charge to you. This means your ADA specialist is always an email or phone call away. We’re in it for the long run!
Get ADA Assistance and Enhance Your Website’s Functionality and Usability
ADA Compliance Tool
Provide A Personalized Browsing Experience
Thrive Internet Marketing Agency is one of the recognized ADA compliance companies that offer comprehensive ADA compliant services. We utilize our advanced ADA compliance software to fix ADA errors on your website, ensure WordPress ADA compliance and meet ADA IRS tax credit requirements.
Our ADA compliance tool features:
Seizure Safe Profile
Page content that flashes, flickers or blinks, such as videos and animations, can trigger photosensitive epilepsy. Thrive’s ADA compliance software eliminates flashes and reduces color from your website to make it a safe platform for epileptic and seizure-prone users.
Visually Impaired Profile
Our ADA website compliant specialists enhance your site visuals to make it accessible to the visually impaired and comply with the ADA compliant tax credit requirements. We ensure your online content is suitable for screen readers, make hyperlinks stand out for the color blind, associate text with links and use coding standards to ensure headings are properly nested.
Cognitive Disability Profile
This profile boasts assistive features that help page visitors with cognitive disabilities, such as attention deficit disorder (ADD), dyslexia and autism, focus on the essential page elements and complete their desired action. We utilize a search engine linked to Wiktionary and Wikipedia to make your content more understandable and provide ways to help users navigate your website with ease.
ADHD-friendly Profile
Our ADA compliance software significantly eliminates distractions on your website to help people with neurodevelopmental disorders browse, read and concentrate on the important content. The ADHD-friendly profile features a reading mask that provides users sufficient time to access and interact with your page content.
Blind Users Support
Thrive’s AI tool analyzes your website components to provide screen readers with meaningful data, in adherence to the ADA compliance website tax credit guidelines. Our website ADA compliant software adjusts your website to make it compatible with any screen reader, such as JAWS, VoiceOver, NVDA and TalkBack.
Keyboard Navigation
Many people rely on the keyboard to interact with the web. At Thrive, we boost your website’s keyboard accessibility to ensure all functionalities available by mouse are also available by keyboard.
Content Adjustments
Using the ADA compliant widget, page visitors have the option to make other adjustments to your site content to suit their needs and disabilities. Online users can change the text alignments, adjust the font size and line height, magnify texts, highlight titles and links and even modify the letter spacing and font style. Color
Color Adjustments
Another option for online users is the color adjustment settings. Page visitors can optimize the contrast and saturation of your page elements. They can also modify the text, title and background colors for an optimum online experience.
Orientation Adjustments
Our ADA compliance tool ensures your content adapts to the online user’s preferred orientation. Site visitors have the option to hide images, mute sounds, enable the reading mask, choose between a big black or big white cursor and use a virtual keyboard.
Thrive’s ADA Compliance Tool Advantage
Remediate ADA Errors and Strengthen Your Digital Foundation
Numerous institutions and esteemed brands, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard University, Netflix, Kylie Cosmetics, Domino’s and Amazon, have been sued for failure to meet the ADA accessibility requirements. Don’t wait for demand letters before you get an ADA compliance website. Invest in the right ADA compliance checker to safeguard your business from ADA compliant lawsuits.
Don’t have the time, resources and capabilities to perform an ADA compliant website test? Partner with a reputable web design company that knows how to make a website ADA compliant. Whether you need a website redesign or a brand new site build, in both instances we can assure you, your site will be screen-reader friendly from the get-go. Once we’ve integrated our ADA compliance tool, we can maintain your site’s full ADA compliance through ongoing software or plugin updates. If there are any concerns, one of our dedicated ADA specialists and our tech support team will assist yo
At Thrive Internet Marketing Agency, creating a more operable and navigable website has always been at the core of our business strategy. When the question arose “how to make website ADA compliant?” our team of experts quickly skilled up so we could assure our customers of a seamless and superior website build. This is why we have built our ADA website compliance services and the integration of our ADA tool into all of our web design packages. Leverage our WordPress ADA compliance tool and reap the following benefits:u at no extra cost.
Explore the Benefits of Our ADA Website Compliance Tool
Why Choose Thrive For Your ADA Website Compliance Services
Increase Your Target Audience and Get More Customers
Thrive Internet Marketing Agency is one of the few ADA compliance companies that provide full-service web solutions that meet the ADA accessibility requirements. Our ADA compliance specialists went through intensive training, performed thorough research and spent months brainstorming to develop an AI tool that serves as an ADA compliance website checker and performs all the necessary functions for WCAG compliance.
Before launching our ADA services, we’ve tested and implemented the ADA website compliance checker on our website to ensure it serves its purpose and complies with the ADA guidelines. Learning how to make a website ADA compliant is just the beginning. We continuously improve our web solutions and AI tool to help more businesses and organizations complete the ADA requirements and pass the ADA compliance website test.
Here is our process:
- We review your website to determine its current ADA compliance status
- Present an in-depth report of the ADA compliance website checker results
- Discuss your options to keep your website ADA compliant
- Set up the ADA compliance tool on your website
- Provide a WCAG compliance report and assign a dedicated ADA compliance specialist to assist you
Schedule a consultation with one of our ADA compliance checker specialists to find out how to make your website ADA compliant.
ADA Compliant Website Checklist
Let Us Do A FREE Audit Today
You might be asking, “Is my website ADA compliant?” “How to make my website ADA compliant?” Our ADA compliance specialists created the ultimate ADA compliant website checklist to facilitate your site audit.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines indicate that WCAG compliant websites should be:
Perceivable
Accessible website content is presented in an easily perceptible manner. This means ADA compliant websites must cater to various types of assistive technology and provide text and audio alternatives to allow visually-impaired individuals to browse and read through your online content.
Operable
Your site navigation is one of the critical aspects of ADA web compliance. Ensure your website offers keyboard accessibility to enable motor-impaired individuals to easily jump to specific site elements and access content in just a click of a button..
Understandable
ADA compliant websites cater to people with various learning capabilities and disabilities. This means your content must be readable and comprehensible to all page visitors regardless of their cognitive ability. Offer input assistance, such as dictionary options, avoid unannounced popup windows and provide clear labels for forms and application controls.
Robust
Your page content must be robust enough to ensure a variety of user agents can crawl and interpret your online content. An ADA compliant website can adapt to technological advancements and remains accessible to all users regardless of web updates.
Is your website ADA compliant? Improve your website accessibility and ensure all your page visitors have a quality experience. Call us now to get a free quote on your website.