Now Are You Defending Your Digital Castle?

A few weeks ago, we brought in Kris Rivenburgh, an attorney, website accessibility consultant, and the author of The ADA Book to help printers understand the challenges they may face with website accessibility and compliance issues based on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

After I met Kris, it quickly became my opinion that this would be one of the most important webinars we’ve ever presented. After the webinar, I learned that I wasn’t alone in this opinion when I received this feedback from Danny (one of the attendees):

Thank you, Dave, for providing this information. When I first read the email [about the Defend Your Digital Castle webinar you were promoting], I was pretty dubious. After we spoke on the phone, I thought it might be worthwhile. Now I understand how valuable this could possibly be.

Danny’s first impression of the webinar (based on the email he received) was that we were trying to use a scare tactic to encourage people to attend this webinar. I assured him this wasn’t the case, and that this was an incredible learning opportunity. Danny attended the webinar, and after the fact, Danny agreed!

But, I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s go back to the time when we were preparing for that webinar.

It’s a Team Effort

As the webinar drew closer, some of our website subscribers questioned why they needed to know about this information if we were in charge of maintaining their website’s technology. They’d ask,

“Isn’t it your job to make sure my website is ADA accessible and ADA compliant?”

The answer is both yes and no. The answer is that this is a team effort.

What We Do

Our part of that team effort is to make sure that we’re doing everything we can do at a system level to ensure your website is ADA accessible and ADA compliant.

This is not a “once and done” topic. The world of ADA accessibility and compliance is always changing, so we’re learning new requirements right along with you. We’ve already made changes based on Kris’s suggestions, and we have plans in place to incorporate more of Kris’s suggestions to “improve the website’s performance and accessibility for all users, including people with disabilities.” (You’ll see why I put that in quotes in just a moment.)

What You Need to Do

But that’s only part of the team effort.

Much of the content on the websites we provide is customizable, and with the ability to manage that content comes a responsibility on your part to make sure the content changes you make to your website are in line with current ADA accessibility best practices.

There are three simple things you can do right now, even if you weren’t at the webinar.

1. Publish a Statement on Your Website

First, publish a statement on your website, similar to the one Kris has published on his website, ADABook.com. Here’s his statement:

Accessibility Statement

I am continually working to improve this website’s performance and accessibility for all users, including people with disabilities. If you have a disability and have any difficulty accessing this website, please contact me by phone or email and I will make every effort to ensure you can access this website. You can call me at 1-800-736-9029 or email me at kris@adabook.com. Please note that phone calls are not staffed 24 hours a day and you may not get a real-time response on phone.

2. Take Some Great Advice

Next, act on Kris’s advice found in this post: https://krisrivenburgh.com/ada-checklist-compliance-guidelines-website-accessible/

3.  Plan Ahead

Here’s one more thing you can do, too: Plan to attend the next Defend Your Digital Castle webinar.

We believe the information presented in this webinar is so important for your business that this time we’re offering two different sessions to ensure everyone can attend. Remember, these webinars are NOT recorded, so pick a time that you can be sure to attend.

The ADA Website Compliance Webinar is a live-only event. Join us for one of two online sessions scheduled for Tuesday, July 16th at 1:00 PM CST or Thursday, July 25th at 10:00 AM CST.

RESERVE YOUR WEBINAR SEAT NOW

One Final Thought

As we prepared for the first Defend Your Digital Castle webinar, we often focused on the defensive strategies to minimize your risk of being challenged by “garbage lawyers” looking for easy wins against owners of websites with ADA accessibility and compliance issues.

These lawyers may pretend like they have the best interests of the disabled community in mind, but many times they don’t. Their actions are motivated by their own financial interests. We want to help you be on your best defense in those situations.

However, we also want to remind you that the best reason to make sure your website is ADA accessible and compliant is that it’s the right thing to do.

A website that’s ADA accessible and compliant not only keeps the “garbage lawyers” away, but it also provides a welcoming experience for the disabled community. As a bonus, websites that are ADA accessible and compliant are not only friendly to persons with disabilities, but they also tend to be friendly to search engine bots too!

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

If you’re a printer with a website, you should attend the ADA Website Compliance Webinar.

This webinar is being made available to all printers. You don’t need to be a subscriber to the websites from Marketing Ideas For Printers to attend! In fact, it’s perhaps even more important for non-subscribers to attend; your websites may be more vulnerable to ADA compliance issues.

There is a $49 registration fee to attend the live ADA Website Compliance Check training session, but this training session can cost you nothing!

That’s because your registration fee can be applied to any new subscription from Marketing Ideas For Printers. (The registration fee is discounted to $39 for printers subscribing to websites from Marketing Ideas For Printers.)

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn what you can do to defend your digital castle and sign up for this live-only webinar training event.

We hope to see you at one of the next presentations of the Defend Your Digital Castle webinar in July!

RESERVE YOUR WEBINAR SEAT NOW