ADA Compliance demand letter

[MattK]

I got a demand letter from the attorney firm Carlson Lynch. The letter states that my website is not ADA compliant. They demand a response within 21 days to settle or they will file a lawsuit. The remedies are impossible to comply with and would cost a small fortune. Does anyone have any experience with this?
Thanks
Matt

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Well that sucks. Up till now, these fraudulent lawsuits where limited to larger companies web site, especially those who's online presence could be argued is an 'extension' of public accommodations. (i.e., they where only attacking companies that have a brick and mortar component).

There IS no way to achieve compliance with Art III of the ADA policy because that section hasn't been finalized, and wont be until sometime after 2018.

However, dealing with lawyers will always cost you money.

That being said, compliance may not be too hard to achieve as a modern site, built correctly, will meet the WCAG 2.0 / Section 508 standards which I believe are the only standards currently "required".

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

BTW: here's two online checkers for Web Accessability:

http://wave.webaim.org/
https://www.powermapper.com/products/sortsite/checks/accessibility-checks/

[MattK]

Thanks Bruce. Hate wasting money on lawyers but at this point I think I will at least need them to review it. Luck me!!

[Dan - Glendale Designs]

Just like the patent trolls that made their rounds a few years back regarding "grouped search results", it is going to take a number of entities, possibly some with deeper pockets, to fight the fight. From what I have read, there are number of others out there that have received the same letters, they have also pointed out that the Carlson Lynch website does not comply with the standards they are pressing via unnamed defendants. Looks like there are a few mid sized/larger companies, might be worth reaching out to them and seeing if you can piggyback off of some of the work they have already done.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

I'd also use the compliance checkers. From what I saw just on the kerstencards.com website, making it compliant would take less time than finding a lawyer. :) Its mostly stuff like making sure "ALT" tags are used, making sure all forms have a unique ID and can submit with a Enter key and stuff like that.

[MattK]

Yeah going to start with the easy stuff for compliance. After talking to a few attorneys it is one of those things where I got unlucky and need to address it. With this particular group it is legalized extortion. Crap shoot if they actually file a lawsuit but if I at least show effort it will be in my favor. Regardless, it is going to cost money I had not planned on spending this year.

[alphabet]

The Chrome Accessibility Tool is an easy to use plug-in that audits your page, prioritizes errors, indicates the DOM element and provides a link to how to fix it.

[kitdang]

Hi Matt,

I too just received a letter on the same subject. I just check your site and they look like they are not compliance. How did you go about resolving this?

Thanks

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

there is a new sheriff in town that is the easy way to fix and prevent: https://userway.org/

The paid version even provides technical leagle assistance should you get scammed.

[delcorsets]

I would also check out 216digital as they have a solution that actually addressed the code compliance rather that just placing an overlay on top of the non-compliant code. There's a webinar here:
https://www.miva.com/website-accessbility-webinar-watch

More about ADA compliance on their site here: https://216digital.com/ada/

We were hit with a similar demand letter and used their service to remediate.

[kitdang]

Thank you both for your feedback.

delcorsets - looks like you still have 77 contrast errors on your site (see link below). Do you not need to fix contrast errors to be WCAG 2.1 compliant? I really hate to compromised on the site/brand theme color. Just curious how go get around that.

https://wave.webaim.org/report#/http...sboutique.com/