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Costly Accessibility Lawsuits Are on the 2020 Horizon for Unsuspicious Franchising Brands with Inferior Brand Website Providers

Nov 22, 2019

Costly Accessibility Lawsuits Are on the 2020 Horizon for Unsuspicious Franchising Brands with Inferior Brand Website Providers

SeoSamba Announces All New Websites To Be Compliant With the Americans with Disabilities Act WCAG 2.1 AA Standard

Is your Website compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act? Has your brand website provider got your back?

 

Find out here: SeoSamba now offers expedited ADA compliance audit expert services and retrofit services. 

Your website might cost you more in 2020 than ever before. The plaintiff’s lawyers are filing ADA lawsuits as fast as they can. This is especially true for franchise brands, as they are more exposed due to their ubiquitous nature, multi-unit structure and perceived deep pockets.

The latest development involved a supreme court decision to deny a petition from Domino’s Pizza, leaving in place a lower court decision against the company. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/07/dominos-supreme-court.html

Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is being interpreted to include websites as “places of public accommodation”.

Websites with significantly inaccessible components can be seen as discriminatory against persons with disabilities. The ADA is a strict liability law. This means there are no excuses nor defenses for violations. In other words, you cannot claim ignorance or that your web developer is working on it.

There is no current legal prescription that exists for web accessibility in private U.S. entities but WCAG 2.1 AA is frequently referenced by courts.

Quick-fix solutions for website accessibility do not exist at this time. Website auditing and modifying need to be handled by seasoned professionals, experienced in meeting these legal requirements. Redrafts can be expensive based on how far out of compliance your websites are.

No cost ADA compliance

Part of SeoSamba’s unwavering commitment to ever-higher standards and innovation includes all SeoSamba U.S customers, including franchise brands and their franchisees will receive WCAG 2.1 AA compliant websites out-of-the-box.

Michel Leconte, SeoSamba CEO commentsSeoSamba has been at the forefront of the industry delivering high-quality W3C compliant sites for many years, but we are now taking it to the next level with WCAG 2.1 AA compliant websites. He further adds “We are happy to help all our customers, and especially franchising brands minimize exposure to the potentially devastatingly costly lawsuit.”

Settlements on ADA website compliance can amount to $50,000 or more. And this is to avoid lawsuits at an early stage! If you end up settling in court, you still have to spend the money to make your sites accessible and compliant.

Remember, the best course of action is to make all of your websites accessible across your entire brand network if you are a franchisor. Procrastination is a costly option.

SeoSamba now offers expedited ADA compliance audit expert services and retrofit services. 

 

Alternatively, find out how your franchise brand can easily and inexpensively migrate to SeoSamba Marketing OS, a modern brand marketing platform, and SeoSamba’s CMS outfitted with WCAG 2.1 AA compliant websites and packed with collaborative social, review, blog, call tracking, CRM, and website-built tools.

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