Universities and other higher education institutions tend to have a large digital footprint, spread across different sites and channels that have grown over time. In many cases this represents a “sprawl” with uncontrolled growth of the website estate, lacking central governance and controls.
18th May 2023 1pm (BST) on Zoom
AAAtraq are pleased to host a live webinar to help retailers improve their online performance.
Sitemorse likes to keep in regular contact with their clients, and feedback is essential to them! From many of their recent conversations and, of course, the current economic climate, they’re very aware of the balancing act authorities are playing between budgets, with compliance. This isn’t just an issue in Government at a Local level; Central Government must also keep a watchful eye on budgets. Many authorities are keen to make the case to senior management about maintaining a dedicated web team and evidence the important role a good website can play in increasing efficiency, and how cost effective this is.
A website must be accessible by law, and there are considerable financial risks associated with non-compliance. Every year more dollars are being spent on litigation, and the numbers are likely to keep on rising. At the same time, initiatives that are designed to drive compliance are simply not working. The situation is untenable in the longer term.
Each year there is an alarming increase in the level of litigation relating to online accessibility. In 2022 there were 3,255 claims filed in the US (opens in a new window), a year-on-year rise of 12%. These are the just the results that are in the public domain – there are thousands more ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) demand letters that are settled out of court.
AAAtraq is the world’s first service to combine automated compliance software with litigation support and costs coverage indemnity, giving organizations the opportunity to effectively manage the risks around online accessibility compliance and the inevitable corresponding costs.
Lack of executive ownership of the process of improving your website is at the heart of the problem
There is a societal need to be inclusive, and a legal requirement not to discriminate. Over the last five years, compliance spend and litigation have continued to rise, but with no discernible improvement in website accessibility compliance.
In the digital age, businesses and organizations must take into account their cross-border responsibilities when it comes to digital compliance. This includes ensuring accessibility and privacy for all users, regardless of their location or nationality. With the increasing use of the internet and digital technologies, it is crucial that website owners and operators understand their responsibilities and take the necessary steps to comply with regulations in different jurisdictions. Failure to comply can result in legal and financial consequences, as well as damage to the reputation of the business or organization.
The New York State Senate Bill S7572A, requiring contractors and vendors who supply websites and related services to the state to confirm that the sites and/or services meet website accessibility standards, became law on December 2, 2022 and will take effect on May 31, 2023. This bill has significant implications for contractors and vendors who work with the state, as well as for the state itself.
Post COVID, the number of digital assets including websites, web applications and online content has continued to grow rapidly. Digital sprawl refers to the proliferation of these digital assets which occurs within organizations without proper oversight and control of them, e.g., websites can be created for a variety of reasons such as personal projects, experimental initiatives and promotional events.
New York, March 13, 2023 - Compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is already costing billions, to the Higher Education sector in particular, yet evidence shows that current approaches are failing.
Litigation against higher education institutions for non-compliance with online ADA shows no sign up slowing down, with recent cases against Harvard (opens in a new window), Berkeley (opens in a new window), Colgate (opens in a new window), Mercer (opens in a new window), Lafayette and Loyola (opens in a new window) – to name but a few.
Last week we wrote about new cases already being reported in 2023 (opens in a new window). No doubt we will see more and more cases being reported over the next few weeks. But what’s happened in the last week?
Key figure on 'online' accessibility bill moves from congress to senate.
To kick the new year off we’re hosting another webinar! This webinar will cover Vendor and Supplier Management, it’s open to all AAAtraq members and will be held on Tuesday, January 17th 2023 at 9:30 PST / 5:30 GMT / 12:30 EST.
The start of the year often brings about a series of changes with people making new year’s resolutions and organizations starting new campaigns. However, one change we haven’t seen is website ADA legal demands, it’s only a few days into the year and we’re already seeing stories hitting the headlines.
One question that organizations often ask is whether laws relating to website and online accessibility can be applied to them. There can be misconceptions that somehow if an organization is of a particular size or in particular sector, it means they are exempt. The truth is that there are virtually no exemptions – the law affects every organization in the US.
Throughout society there is a call to be increasingly inclusive. Yet more than 30 years after the establishment of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, as well as recurring lawsuits for alleged inaccessible content in violation of the 1973 US Rehabilitation Act, high-branded institutions such as Harvard University and University of California, Berkeley (UCL Berkeley), are failing to achieve digital inclusion for Americans with a wide range of disabilities.
Why do so many organisations have websites that fail their basic legal requirement of being accessible to people living with disabilities and open themselves up to the risk of litigation?
When it comes to making a website accessible to ensure it meets the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) or other similar legislation, the immediate assumption is that this is an area purely for IT, the web or digital team, or a digital agency partner. Most business stakeholders will assume it’s “just one for the techies” to sort out, and a technical problem that can be fixed.
Receiving a demand letter from a legal firm with the potential threat of legal action can be stressful. But it’s becoming an everyday part of running a business.
New Report Shows Shocking Widespread Failure of Digital Inclusion; Litigation Risk
New York, November 8, 2022 - According to the new Risk INDEX™: Higher Education (opens in a new window) Report from InsurTech AAAtraq (opens in a new window), 96% of higher education websites are not accessible to people who browse the web with assistive devices, making them non-complaint with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In today’s post-secondary education environment, 19.4% of students are disabled.1
For years, Congress has been incapable of enacting (and even introducing) legislation that would have a meaningful impact in assisting the millions of disabled Americans currently disenfranchised by discrimination on the internet.
While the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and Section 508 do protect disabled individuals from most discrimination on the internet, it does not protect them in every instance or in every municipality.
If you’re the Risk Manager or AAAtraq Service Owner, you may hear this from your technical team, so be ready: THIS REPORT IS WRONG! RUBBISH! THIS SYSTEM DOESN’T WORK! IT’S INCORRECT!
AAAtraq’s Risk Control Service guides clients through a step-by-step process to reduce the risk of ADA website litigation.
AAAtraq delivers an online ADA Risk Control Program focused on your website(s). The program is simple to deploy, allows you to assign tasks and enables clients to demonstrate significant improvement in just one week.
There has been a lot of recent activity from Senators and other government departments, on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and how change needs to happen.
US institutions for the blind and people with disabilities are urging congress to move quickly on ’The Website and Software Accessibility Act’ introduced by Senator Tammy Duckworth and Congressman John Sarbanes on September 29th, 2022.
If you’ve reached the stage where you understand the need to address the threat posed by a lack of ADA compliance, you ought to know that 94% of website homepages have compliance failures. Whether you have a coded, bespoke website or one constructed using templates from a Content Management System (CMS), there is no difference. It’s a steep challenge to create a fully compliant site that then remains so going forward.
It’s extremely important that you have an Accessibility Statement on your website, not least to demonstrate where you are with compliance, but to aid those who might find it a bit harder to access your website’s content, by giving them contacts to ask for help.
On Monday August 1st, 2022, Illinois House Bill 26 (HB 26) entered as law in the State of Illinois, details of the bill can be viewed at https://trackbill.com/bill/illinois-house-bill-26-sch-cd-internet-accessibility/1978129/ (opens in a new window).
[AUGUST 4, 2022 NEW YORK] The latest report by InsurTech company, AAAtraq (AAAtraq.com (opens in a new window)) on the Inclusivity of more than 600 Congressional websites shows that the majority of Congressional webpages are inaccessible to disabled users and that more than 9 out of 10 pages are vulnerable to litigation.
In today’s digital world, an organization’s website is just as important as their physical front door. For many, it is the first and last point of interaction with your organization/company. As such the design of your website is critical to your organization’s brand and its ability to survive.
Web developers are individuals/entities that create and maintain websites.1 Often contracted by 3rd parties (in this case your company being the client), web developers are responsible for creating, maintaining (in many cases), and testing the websites they service. Web developers can be sued for the inaccessible websites they create; however, the manner and rationale for said suit is a bit trickier to understand.
[JULY 27th, 2022 NEW YORK] AAAtraq, an InsurTech company, today announced its collaboration with the leading insurance pool in the mid-west, CLIC. The AAAtraq Risk Management Program (RMP) is now available to all CLIC members, and any Illinois public school district is eligible for the program via CLIC.
Tuesday July 26th, 2022 marks the 32nd anniversary of the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA).
July has been another busy month for accessibility; with a mid-year report being released and it being Disability Pride Month.
Three years after the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic, very few things are certain beyond the fact that life has forever been changed. Of the many adaptations to everyday life, one change that appears to be of a more permanent nature is the predilection to more flexibility in dining.
The largest minority group in the world is that of disabled individuals. Roughly 15% of the global population identifies as disabled, with roughly one in four American adults doing so.1 Inclusivity of disabled individuals into the economic sector remains a significant struggle for businesses.
External validation is a critical component of review for most organizations. External validation, as opposed to internal validation, holds greater credence in the review of work produced most closely associated with the internal activities of a business. Checking one’s own work can be problematic, as confirmation bias may veil the existence of real issues from being identified.
In June, AAAtraq released “Accessibility in Virtual Closings and Signings” (opens in a new window), the first part of a two-part series on how to make the closing process on real estate more accessible for disabled users. The former article focused primarily on the digital component of electronic closings (eClosing), particularly the different ways in which brokers and borrowers can engage in a closing that makes use of the digital format. The second part of the series, this article, will focus on the role of electronic signing (eSigning) in the process of eClosings and the subsequent preference for eSignings more broadly.
[JULY 1st, 2022 NEW YORK] Collective Liability Insurance Cooperative (CLIC), the leading insurance pool for school districts in Illinois, today announced its collaboration with InsurTech, AAAtraq; introducing a new risk management program for members, to protect them from the rapidly growing threat of litigation for website non-compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
New data released by the Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy indicates that web inaccessibility is amongst the most prevalent issues facing disabled users of the internet. Not only does inaccessibility limit individuals’ ability to engage with websites, but it has also been linked to a lower level of employment and can be causal of lower socio-economic status. In recognition of such information, many prominent officials have recognized the need for change and have sent a letter to the Department of Justice hoping to generate some forward movement on the issue.
June sees more interesting articles around the topic of Inclusion News.
Last week, AAAtraq VP Partnerships & Commercial, Rob Andrews, had the pleasure of being part of a panel hosting a CE course for the Surplus Line Association of California (SLA) on ‘The Yellow Click Road: Perils When Operating In An Online Environment’.
It’s been four years to the day since 103 members of the House of Representatives wrote to then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, calling on his Department to mitigate the amount of litigation resulting from violations of the ADA on the grounds of inaccessible content on websites.1
While many of the recent technological developments in articles discussed by AAAtraq were brought about by about the reliance on digital during quarantine periods of the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of technology to engage in virtual closings in real estate and esignatures had already begun to ingratiate itself into modern real estate practice.
[JUNE 8th, 2022 NEW YORK] The latest report by InsurTech company, AAAtraq https://AAAtraq.com/ (opens in a new window) on the Inclusivity of more than 600 Congressional websites home pages shows that the majority of these pages are inaccessible to disabled users and that more than 9 out of 10 are exposed to litigation. The report also reveals the amount of money now being wasted by organizations on litigation costs – some $600,000,000 per month.
The simple answer: no! Widgets, as defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), are a “discrete user interface object with which the user can interact.” Widgets, and overlays, whose use is almost synonymous with that of the widget, engage with aspects of the website in the attempt to make it more user friendly and inclusive.
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