This is a list of resources that I plan to update from time to time for website accessibility and ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliance. There have been reports of website owners having to pay $15,000 USD for their website not being in compliance with the ADA, and in 2019 there were dozens of galleries that were sued because their websites were not friendly to visually impaired people (https://news.artnet.com/art-world/dozens-of-new-york-galleries-slammed-with-lawsuits-for-ada-compliance-on-websites-1450276).
It’s good to have websites be accessible not only for legal reasons, but for business reasons too. If companies take the time to make their websites accessible, that opens up new client possibilities that might otherwise not be there.
W3.org
W3.org (https://www.w3.org/) is either the best or one of the best resources for complying with the ADA. Some laws, such as Italy’s (https://www.w3.org/WAI/policies/italy/) follow guidelines created by this organization. For example in Italy’s case it reportedly as of writing follows WCAG 2.0, but as of writing websites should follow the updated WCAG 2.1 (https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/). If new laws are made internationally, it’s possible that people in the government will end up co-opting guidelines set by W3. The section about accessibility for people with disabilities is at https://www.w3.org/WAI/.
Tax Credits (For Companies That Pay Taxes in the USA)
If you spend money to make your website more accessible (hint hint we’re totally up for that), if it’s a small business then it could get up to $5,000 in tax credits. There is information of more of the details at https://www.boia.org/blog/irs-will-pay-you-for-website-accessibility, and the tax form can be found at https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-8826.
Introduction to Website Accessibility Edx Course
Edx.org is a good resource for learning, and W3 has a course that covers web accessibility at https://www.edx.org/course/web-accessibility-introduction. From what I understand you can watch the video for free, but if you want to be certified (and reward the creators of it plus the website for spending the money to host the content) then you can pay $99.
Section 508 Website
Section 508 relates to a part of USA federal government law and can be found at https://www.section508.gov/. There are a lot of good resources here that are worth browsing through for your website.
I plan to update this page as I find more notable resources. In the meantime, if you’d like a website made with accessibility in mind, please contact us.