ADA and Section 508 Lawsuit Tsunami

A tsunami of lawsuits may hit businesses, government agencies, and educational institutions. The targets are websites and elearning. The advance lawsuit storm waves have already hit Target, the VA, Arizona State University and others. Your website or elearning courses may be next.

The New Definition of Facilities

Though providing equal access to buildings, restrooms, elevators, and the like has become common and expected, until recently equal access to an organization’s “digital” facilities” has often been more of an afterthought—if thought about at all. The ADA and Section 508 are essentially civil rights legislation aimed at ensuring equal access to people with a disability. Though the acts were initially aimed at access to physical facilities, with the pervasive rise of the internet, wheelchair ramps and wide restroom stalls are not enough. As a result, the ADA and Section 508 now encompass the accessibility (or lack thereof) of websites and elearning.

But I Don’t Have Blind Employees

It’s a common misunderstanding that the ADA and Section 508 only apply if the organization has a blind employee. Wrong. The acts apply to a wide range of disabilities including color blindness, reduced vision, hearing disabilities, and physical disabilities such as the inability to use a mouse or keyboard. In addition, the acts are not restricted to employees but include those in the general public who might use your facilities. Finally, if you operate a business open to the public, or have accepted federal funds, or are a local, state or federal government agency, you are subject to the equal access requirements regardless of whether you have employees with a disability. Again, failure to provide equal access is a civil rights violation and a losing hand in a lawsuit.

Inaccessible Website Costs $6 Million

In brief, Target does business with the public and its website was not fully accessible to people with disabilities. Target paid $6 million and corrected their website. The VA had training courses it’s employees were required to complete. However, the courses were not accessible to employees with disabilities. The VA lost the lawsuit. The list goes on.

Accessible vs. Usable

Faced with the daunting obstacles of creating an accessible course— whether to avoid a lawsuit or to simply provide users an accessible elearning experience—several common methods are used. Unfortunately, many may simply be providing a false sense of security. Creating an accessible course is often not as simple as checking a “make accessible” box; adding some alt text; saving a PDF; or creating a Flash file. These methods may be little defense against the ADA/Section 508 lawsuit tsunami. For example, a “Make Accessible” check box in an elearning authoring tool does not say “Make Section 508 Compliant”! Adding alt text only addresses some elearning accessibility issues, and a PDF or Flash file may be technically accessible but practically unusable.  What is meant by “practically unusable”? A 45 degree wheelchair ramp may be a ramp, but the steepness makes it unusable by someone in a wheel chair and an expensive lawsuit would likely result.

Separate But Not Equal is Expensive

Besides the extra cost and maintenance issues inherent in creating a separate “accessible” version of an elearning course, many simply do not provide the same rich learning experience of the “standard” course it is based on. Then there is the issue of lack of SCORM and AICC conformance. The solution to accessibility as well as usability is to create one course, usable by everyone. Sounds easy, but up until now that meant hand coding by a team of very skilled (and expensive) programmers. Coordinating the complexity of a two-way learning experience to accommodate assistive technology such as screen readers and voice control, while correctly building in appropriate navigation focus,  a glossary, table of contents, and assessment questions is not for the inexperienced or those on a tight budget.

A New Approach

Until now, many organizations were caught between the looming lawsuit tsunami and the expense and time required to achieve ADA and Section 508 compliance. However, there is a new approach that is both affordable and more efficient than maintaining separate course versions. It also enables staff to create courses, rather than a team of expensive programmers. By starting with an authoring platform that has accessibility built in (and is independently certified), your staff can shorten development time while delivering media rich elearning courses that are both accessible and usable by everyone. Better to do the job right the first time and avoid separate course versions that are expensive, hard to maintain, and often an easy target for a lawsuit.