The ADA Book

Kris Rivenburgh explains how you can significantly reduce the cost of digital accessibility through training.  When you train your in-house team (employees, staff, etc.) and outside contributors (contractors, vendors, etc.), accessibility will become a part of your process as your digital personnel add accessibility to their skillset and knowledgebase. While you can make use of expert service...

Kris Rivenburgh covers options when your website (or other digital asset) is reliant upon a third-party integration (e.g., plugin, app, widget, embed, platform, software, etc.) that isn't accessible / WCAG conformant but you want to make sure that you're compliant with the ADA and/or other laws. Kris designed the ADA Compliance Course (ACC) as instructions you can give your team to fix the most co...

Kris Rivenburgh explains that the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are not the law and they never are. The current legal standard under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is meaningful access.  WCAG may be incorporated into the law, but these accessibility guidelines are technical standards. This is why WCAG compliance is improper terminology, we must be in compliance with t...

Kris Rivenburgh explains what the California Unruh Civil Rights Act is and how it's related to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and website accessibility complaints / lawsuits and demand letters. While there is a great technical argument that the Unruh Act only applies to physical structures of businesses in California, plaintiffs' law firms are nevertheless initiating litigation against...

Kris Rivenburgh explains why the WAVE automated scan tool for website accessibility is the single best starting point for reducing risk of ADA compliance litigation / lawsuits.  WAVE is free and plaintiffs' law firms frequently rely upon WAVE to find accessibility issues to serve as the basis for claims in demand letters and/or complaints. Once you have reduced your WAVE errors and alerts to...

Kris Rivenburgh differentiates plugins from overlays and explains that while plugins can provide benefit, they can't make a website "ADA compliant" or WCAG conformant. Website accessibility plugins can serve multiple purposes, from general, marginally beneficial accessibility options (e.g., increase text size, change color scheme, etc.) to specific modifications such as adding form field labels in...

Kris Rivenburgh explains why examples of WCAG conformant / ADA compliant websites don't provide the insight you're looking for: accessible websites can look like any other website. Kris designed the ADA Compliance Course (ACC) as instructions you can give your team to fix the most commonly claimed issues in ADA website lawsuits. The ACC is really an SOP for your web team. Your team can get started...

Kris Rivenburgh alerts digital product sellers how they can differentiate from the competition and win new sales / contracts with accessibility in 2023. Procurement agents and buyers are looking for WCAG 2.1 AA conformance, VPATs / ACRs, and detailed accessibility statements that show your business / company / agency prioritizes and incorporates accessibility. Leaders in accessibility for their re...

Kris Rivenburgh discusses why beginners should start with The ADA Book when trying to learn and understand website accessibility and what is best practice for ADA compliance in the digital world for 2023. Many vendors selling products (e.g., overlays, software, scans, monitoring, etc.) and services slant information to encourage you to buy from them.  This means you're getting sold items you...

Kris Rivenburgh explains the two most important best practices (checklist linked below) for 2023 ADA website compliance: WCAG 2.1 AA conformance Accessibility statement / notice posted on your website WCAG 2.1 AA checklist and guide:   https://accessible.org/wcag Accessibility statement template:   https://accessible.org/kit Kris designed the ADA Compliance Course (ACC) as instructions y...

Kris Rivenburgh explains why SEO as a selling point to ADA website compliance / accessibility is disingenuous.  Remediating your website for WCAG conformance may help with some foundational SEO practices (e.g., page title, heading structure, descriptive anchor text links, alt text values, semantic HTML vs. visual mark-up) but your website's  ranking in Google will not dramatically increa...

Kris Rivenburgh discusses the advantages of hiring him as a ADA website compliance / digital accessibility consultant before you pay for any services or products. Kris is an attorney, author of The ADA Book, and has four years of experience in digital accessibility.  Read more about Kris's history on The ADA Book's YouTube channel page . Kris designed the ADA Compliance Course (ACC) as instru...

Kris Rivenburgh reviews the Wix accessibility page and provides thoughts on the website builder's efforts towards website accessibility / WCAG conformance / ADA compliance.  While Godaddy, Square Space, Shopify, and other website builders are still caught flat footed, Wix is taking a nice approach and making real strides for its customers.  However, Wix still has more work to do - it's c...

Kris Rivenburgh distills ADA website compliance / digital accessibility down to its two most important components: 1) audit and 2) remediation. After reading the material online, it's easy for digital asset owners to become confused and overwhelmed, but what is necessary for accessibility is very simple: audit and remediation. Kris designed the ADA Compliance Course (ACC) as instructions you can g...

Kris explains that while a VPAT® isn't traditionally used for websites, under Section 508's documentation, websites may be included as part of an ICT product or service under the example of electronic content. Resources: https://www.section508.gov/buy/inventory-your-ict/ https://www.itic.org/policy/accessibility/vpat Note that a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template or VPAT is only a template....

Kris discusses how the Usablenet Assistive custom overlay (which is much better than the generic overlays like AccessiBe and UserWay) did not prevent two complaints (i.e., lawsuits) from being filed against Usablenet client, Container Store. This is one practical reason why Kris is against anything that isn't a complete, code-level remediation. The case information from the PDFs discussed is as fo...

If websites could be made accessible from the installation of an overlay (e.g., AccessiBe, UserWay, etc.), wouldn't the DOJ (the regulatory and enforcement agency behind Title II and Title III of the ADA) have mentioned overlays / widgets / plugins / software / apps in their "Guidance on Web Accessibility and the ADA" post? https://beta.ada.gov/resources/web-guidance/ Even the resources listed in...

Karl Groves's phenomenal resource https://overlayfalseclaims.com clearly demonstrates that AccessiBe and other website accessibility overlays do not prevent "ADA" litigation / lawsuits.  And this does not speak to demand letters that are sent privately. This video screen captures the following page: https://overlayfalseclaims.com/appendix-a.html Kris designed the ADA Compliance Course (ACC) a...

Academy.com, a huge U.S. sporting goods retailer, had the AccessiBe overlay widget installed on its website in 2021. They have since  removed the claimed #1 "solution" for website accessibility.  Why don't overlays work for website accessibility? Accessibility legend Karl Groves has put in dozens of hours of work to  make sure it's easy for the public to understand why overlays fail...

Kris Rivenburgh explains the activate / enable problem with overlay widgets like AccessiBe, Userway, etc. The best path to website  accessibility (and best practice for ADA compliance) is conformance with  WCAG 2.1 AA and these widgets do not make your website WCAG conformant. In this episode, Kris works under the assumption that overlays make your  website fully accessible.  E...

Kris Rivenburgh discusses why digital marketing agencies shouldn't advise on website accessibility and ADA compliance unless they're willing to put in the requisite time and research to speak intelligently on the topic. Online marketers who have no idea what they're talking about: Christian Pinon, BitBranding on YouTube Joe Burnich, Big West Marketing Jarrod Michael Gordon, The Working Image on Ap...

Kris Rivenburgh explains what user testing means when it comes to testing website accessibility (and accessibility of other digital assets).  User Testing is not the same as a manual audit and the difference is very important. Kris designed the ADA Compliance Course (ACC) as instructions you can give your team to fix the most commonly claimed issues in ADA website lawsuits. The ACC is really...

Kris Rivenburgh explains the regimented approach that is necessary to reach full WCAG conformance for your website or other digital asset.  Kris recommends dedicating resources to only 5 to 7 pages / screens / URLs, one page at a time, until each issue is resolved. Kris designed the ADA Compliance Course (ACC) as instructions you can give your team to fix the most commonly claimed issues in A...

Kris Rivenburgh explains what WCAG is and how versions 2.1 and 2.0 relate to one another (conformance level AA).  The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are the technical standard for web accessibility (and the principles are applied to digital accessibility outside the web). WCAG is also a highly referenced standard for compliance with the law (ADA, Section 508, AODA, EN 301 549, et...

Kris Rivenburgh explains why "website accessibility checkers" or "ADA compliance checkers" are nice, free tools, but are limited and inconclusive of accessibility and compliance.  Checkers, better thought of as automated scans, are very helpful tools that can detect some important WCAG 2.0 AA accessibility issues, lower risk of litigation (lawsuits), and improve the efficiency of the audit pr...