By Jean Marie Caragher

What do Domino’s Pizza, CVS Pharmacy and Beyoncé have in common? Each has been sued for a non-ADA compliant website.

What is ADA Website Compliance?

Under Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), any business with at least 15 full-time employees that operates for 20 or more weeks every year is covered by the law. Under Title III, businesses that fall into the category of “public accommodation” such as hotels, banks and public transportation, are also required to comply.

There are no clear ADA regulations that explain exactly what compliant web content is, but businesses that fall under ADA Title I or ADA Title III are required to develop a website that offers “reasonable accessibility” to people with disabilities.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 was developed by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) with a goal of providing a shared standard for Web content accessibility that meets the needs of individuals, organizations, and governments internationally. It covers a wide range of recommendations for making Web content more accessible. Following these guidelines will make content accessible to a wider range of people with disabilities, including blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, learning disabilities, cognitive limitations, limited movement, speech disabilities, photosensitivity and combinations of these.

Within WCAG 2.0, there are also “levels” of acceptability for ADA website compliance:

• A = below acceptable
• AA = standard
• AAA = exceptional

WCAG 2.0 AA is the standard on which most website owners are operating and is considered acceptable. It is important to know which set of standards you should be meeting, but most of these standards are very technical. Therefore, you may want to work with a web firm that specializes in ADA website compliance and is familiar with WCAG 2.0. Also, consider a consultation with a disability attorney.

How to Develop an ADA-Compliant Website

“The United States is way behind in ADA website compliance compared to businesses in Europe and Australia,” says Jason McKee, Chief Marketing Officer of Accessibility Shield, and a speaker at the 2020 AAM Summit.

According to McKee, the first step to make your website accessible is to acknowledge the issue with an accessibility statement. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) indicates accessibility statements are important for several reasons:

1. Show your users that you care about accessibility and about them.
2. Provide them with information about the accessibility of your content.
3. Demonstrate commitment to accessibility and to social responsibility.

“The next step is to identify the problems and fix them,” says McKee.

Vanessa Schaefer, Co-Founder & Creative Director of Clockwork Design Group, puts ADA website compliance in two buckets. “First is the visual, what users see when they’re on your site,” says Schaefer. “The second is behind the scenes to ensure your site works with screen readers.”

While there are a variety of website accessibility checkers the folks at Clockwork use the WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool to identify accessibility and WCAG errors. For example, the sight-impaired have contrast issues with websites. An orange call-to-action button with white text doesn’t meet the contrast test. “ADA website compliance could involve changing brand colors,” says Danielle Diforio, Accounts Manager at Clockwork, “or making fonts bigger.”

In his article, Is Your Website ADA Compliant?, Adam C. Uzialko lists some common ways you can address accessibility issues associated with your web content:

• Create alt tags for all images, videos and audio files: Alt tags allow users with disabilities to read or hear alternative descriptions of content they might not otherwise be able to view. Alt tags describe the object itself and, generally, the purpose it serves on the site.
• Create text transcripts for video and audio content: Text transcripts help hearing-impaired users understand content that would otherwise be inaccessible to them.
• Identify the site’s language in header code: Making it clear what language the site should be read in helps users who utilize text readers. Text readers can identify those codes and function accordingly.
• Offer alternatives and suggestions when users encounter input errors: If a user with a disability is encountering input errors because of their need to navigate the website differently, your site should automatically offer recommendations to them as to how to better navigate toward the content they need.
• Create a consistent, organized layout: Menus, links and buttons should be organized in such a way that they are clearly delineated from one another and are easily navigated throughout the entire site.

Bethany Silvis, Marketing Coordinator at Kerkering, Barberio & Co. saw the need to start making their website more accessible after reading articles about law firms being targeted for non-compliance. In the summer of 2019 alt tags were added to all photos. Earlier this year the UserWay widget was added to their website. The UserWay Accessibility Widget is an AI-based auto-remediation technology that measures, monitors and fixes accessibility violations without requiring changes to your website’s existing code. “We have received great feedback from clients and contacts and encourage our employees to share this feature with clients,” says Silvis.

You may also consider hiring a company to repair your website and provide more comprehensive monitoring. McKee suggests you ask potential vendors the following questions:

1. How do you manually test for accessibility?
2. Do you offer HTML remediation?
3. Who are you affiliated with? For example, International Association of Accessibility Professionals.

Consequences of Non-Compliance

Are accounting firms in danger of being sued over non-ADA compliant websites? We will not know until it happens and the largest firms with the deepest pockets are more likely to be impacted.

By making a concerted effort to achieve reasonable accessibility for website visitors with disabilities now, you can get ahead of the curve in developing a compliant website and avoid potential lawsuits. Also, designing a compliant website can lead to better ranking on search engines.

Making our websites more accessible is not just to avoid a lawsuit. With nearly 20 percent of people in the United States affected by a disability, accessibility is the right thing to do.

This article was originally published in the February 2020 AAM Minute.

By Jean Marie Caragher

The 2008 financial crisis was – at that time – the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression of 1929. The stock market nosedived, wiping out nearly $8 trillion in value between late 2007 and 2009. Unemployment rose, peaking at 10 percent in October 2009. The annual net revenue of the Top 100 firms dropped from around 11% in 2008 to 8% in 2009 to -5% in 2010.

Caren Rodriguez (currently chief marketing officer) joined DMJ & Co. as the first in-house marketing professional in the fall of 2006. At the time, developing a budget, identifying opportunities, and creating a marketing and business development culture were just coming to light.

Her early successes were tactical. For example, moving client updates from fax to email, developing audience channels for more targeted communications, and establishing benchmarks for future growth. Strategically, pipeline meetings were adopted and accessible to all firm members so the business development process was transparent.

“These last several weeks (and now months) have made me incredibly grateful for the processes and approaches we established early on,” says Rodriguez. “What was created in the shadows of 2008 became the framework for our strategy today. I had to navigate the budgeting process from determining spending priorities to evaluating sponsorship requests within those years. What was created out of necessity – like those audience channels – have been relied on heavily to share the developing news with the right audience. Firms with industry and sector focused approaches had to navigate and adjust, and that’s certainly echoing back again today.”

Marketing Budgets

This is certainly the time to examine your budget and make smart, strategic changes. In 2008, Rehmann took quick, aggressive action to modify their growth game plan. “We cut spending dramatically in the traditional areas that are easiest to cut:  events, ads, and sponsorships,” explains Mitchell Reno, principal and director of client experience. “We funneled our efforts toward client cross-marketing strategies and highly focused target marketing in key niches and segments. At that time, we used direct mail and tele-prospecting so that our dollars were highly monitored and could show documented ROI.”

“We were very fiscally careful at that time and our budget was significantly reduced as we evaluated every initiative,” adds Sally Glick, principal and chief growth strategist at SobelCo. “We did spend money, but in a targeted and thoughtful manner.”

“My budget was not greatly impacted,” says Jill Lock, director of marketing, Isdaner & Company. “Other times I might stretch the budget to introduce new programs, but in 2008 I kept to the budget.”

Fees and Pricing

“Post 2008, accounting firms made the classic mistake of price-cutting to win new business—a horrible strategy that I anticipate we may see again,” says Reno. “Marketers would do well to counsel their firms to avoid devaluing their services during crisis. Ultimately, this will hurt everyone.”

Michelle River, president of Fore LLC and creator of Advanced Pricing Methods®, agrees with Reno. “CPAs are a very caring bunch,” says River. “They see long-time customers in need and want to help—perhaps even at no charge as an investment in the relationship. That’s okay, but be wise and measured about what you do for free. Avoid discounting, which devalues your entire firm. For CPA firms, discounting is a race to the bottom. It is the strategy of giants like Walmart who move so much volume that they successfully pressure suppliers for discounts in order to maintain margins.”

River explains that quality CPA firm “input suppliers” are top talent. There are no great people available at deep discounts. Further, the profession is moving AWAY from the high-volume at low-price model, leaving that work for the tax-prep stores and enrolled agents or small bookkeeping shops. Firms that will thrive into the future maximize the opposite business model. The consultative business replaces the outdated “triangle” leverage model with a “diamond” model where the greatest number of professionals are at the middle levels.

“Three important factors in a downturn are: managing work capacity, having predictable revenue, and exceptional communication,” says River. “While some competitors resort to discounting in lieu of better strategies, you’ll want to change the way you position your work and its worth. Maintain your price integrity and become proactive to:

• Focus on keeping the right customers and team members
• Draw good, clear boundaries about price, scope and any freebies
• Price up front, with options, outlining results (or the problems you’ll help resolve) at each level of investment.”

How can you communicate price without being a jerk? River advises:

• First, acknowledge the strain, “We know this is a difficult time for you…”
• Reassure about your role and abilities: “I want to do everything possible to help you through this situation.”
• Clarify freebies and limitations. Be proactive and say, “Here are some things that my firm and I can do at no charge…”  This could be just an initial call, or check-ins every two weeks. “Beyond that, we can work together to determine a budget and decide what work is most important at this time as you shift your priorities. You will know prices in advance and we will figure out a payment plan that works for us both.”

Opportunities

So, what can we learn from the 2008 economic crisis?

• Examine your marketing budget and make adjustments, as appropriate. “We looked for creative ways to make our marketing program go further on a strict budget,” shares Lock, “with more focus on joint activities with referral sources, a push for unpaid publicity/promotion (developing unique stories to get firm publicity), enhancing relationships with the media, more internal training rather than hiring outsiders (you discover you have lots of talent on your team), and utilizing existing tools better.”
• Use this time to create or update your firm’s marketing and business development processes and strategies. “One positive impact {of the 2008 economic crisis} was that our staff had a bit more time and motivation to build business,” says Brian Falony, marketing and business development director of Brady Ware & Company. “We worked with them to find opportunities and, for a few, the new focus stuck.”
• Focus on the needs of your current clients. “During 2008 we were very aware of the impact of the recession on our clients in some niche areas,” says Glick, “and, as such, we focused more on retention and cross-selling than on attracting new business.”

All of us also need to adapt to marketing and business development during a pandemic. “What seems different today is that many of the tried and true methods – networking, seminars, lunches and other person-to-person activities – are on hold,” says Falony. “We do not know for how long or if they will ever return like they used to. Now, we have to figure out how to get the kind of return from webinars that we used to get from in-person seminars. We are looking at ways to better use the information we get from our email campaigns and figuring out how to turn interest into a new client without meeting in person. It is really a different world.”

The article was originally published in the AAM Minute in May 2020.