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Cake day: November 1st, 2023

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  • I’m a developer that has done a lot of work in the higher education and finance sectors. Sadly, the ‘G’ in WCAG is ‘guidelines.’ It doesn’t have teeth; there is no legislation around WCAG. I say ‘sadly’ because there really should be a solid legal framework for ensuring equal access to resources, not just loose guidelines.

    The largest movement around the ADA and WCAG was about seven years ago. There were a fair amount of lawsuits brought forward against banks and credit unions since they are federally insured and regulated. Higher education was also targeted as they accept federal money. The gist of it was that the owners of the sites in question did nothing to make the sites compatible with assistive technology like screen readers or even basic navigability needs. I don’t think most of the suits were successful. They did succeed in focusing attention on the topic.

    If you want a good idea how compatible a site is, this tool is excellent; but not perfect: https://wave.webaim.org

    Organizations are increasingly farming out ADA compliance to companies like AudioEye (https://www.audioeye.com). AudioEye might be considered a bit pricey, but worth it when viewed through lens of it being a lot less expensive than addressing a law suit. It’s also less expensive than finding a developer that has accessibility skills on top of all the other inflated technologies that recruiters cram into a job listing.