Navigating compliance on the web is a challenge for every business. Regulations are often complicated, nuanced and sometimes, believe it or not, even subjective in nature. Attorneys specialize in data privacy, cyber security, telemarketing, payment processing, and other critical areas where mistakes mean lawsuits, fines, a damaged reputation or worse. Good counsel is very important. But technical expertise is also needed. This is also the case when it comes to accessibility.
Businesses are being held hostage by a federal law often criticized for its vagueness, predatory attorneys sending out tens of thousands of demand letters in search of a quick buck, and snake oil tech companies selling hollow solutions that offer no protection and in fact often make the company an even bigger target for a lawsuit.
Our mission is to quiet the noise by focusing on the actual problem these laws were written to solve. Accessibility is not a complicated issue. It boils down to some very basic coding techniques that in many cases happen to be best practice for HTML. The only reason it is billed as “complicated” is because it requires manual effort.
This work is not complicated, but it does have to be done in the right way by trained professionals. This is actually a good thing for the industry because the demand for these jobs is growing and many people with disabilities are finding themselves with rewarding careers in a field that is focused on solving some of the frustrations they already face on a daily basis.
For businesses, accessibility is opening up an entire new market of consumers they did not realize existed. There are many benefits to this work, and yes it does serve a public good. But the only way to make it feasible for any business is to make the work efficient, affordable and easy to understand.
We achieve this by providing accurate quotes for each project and by explaining in detail the manual work that needs to be done. We support our client’s dev teams and offer training so that accessibility becomes part of their design and development processes moving forward. We maintain strong relationships with clients in the financial services, digital marketing, higher education and travel industries. We do this by being transparent, detail-oriented and responsive.
Our views of this industry will be posted here as laws, requirements and technologies evolve. We look forward to protecting more companies from lawsuits, fines and bad press. We look forward to it because we love what we do and we won’t quit until the web is accessible for us all.