axe – ES – if – I

Definitely not “access-iffy” 😀

We are Accessifi LLC, a team of website developers with a focus on website accessibility and ADA/WCAG compliance. Our primary business was manual remediation of ADA compliance issues but we have since partnered with AccessiBe to provide our clients with a much more cost effective and efficient path towards an accessible web presence. We still provide manual remediation solutions, but we understand AI offers some very attractive benefits over manual efforts. Encouraging adoption of this powerful accessibility tool is now our primary focus.

AccessiBe are the company behind the web’s leading AI-powered ADA compliance website overlay application, accessWidget. Here at Accessifi we strongly believe AccessiBe’s accessWidget and AI are the present and the future of accessible websites.

AccessiBe has a noble mission; to make the internet fully accessible to everyone. To help widen their reach they partner with development agencies, freelancers, and other providers of web services, who can use the accessWidget in conjunction with, or as a value-added benefit to, their existing services. The accessWidget is an extra arrow in the partner’s quiver as a service to offer their clients, existing and new.

The relationship allows the partner some flexibility on pricing for accessWidget licenses. At Accessifi we view the accessWidget as a crucial stand-alone product that all websites should have, and our manual remediation services are optional extras. Where we help you is that we can offer a further discount on the already-low prices set by AccessiBe. We hope that encourages you to purchase your license through us. What you receive is exactly the same as you would purchasing at the source, with the bonus of priority support for “standard” plan, and discounted pricing for all plans.

At Accessifi we are also happy to handle the accessWidget installation for you, if you do not have access to your own webmaster or developer. In most cases it’s a simple process that we can do for a nominal installation fee if you purchase your license through us. If your website requires a more time consuming installation (usually due to old code, lack of a CMS, etc), we can negotiate an acceptable installation fee with you before we do anything at all.

An accessible website is a website that is designed and developed in a way that ensures people with disabilities can access and use it effectively, through adherence to established accessibility guidelines such as WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines).

Yes, all business websites are required to be ADA compliant under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Title III of the ADA prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in places of public accommodation, and the law has been interpreted to apply to websites as well.

Specifically, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has issued guidance stating that websites are considered places of public accommodation under the ADA, and that they must be accessible to individuals with disabilities. While there are no specific ADA regulations for website accessibility, the DOJ has endorsed the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) as the standard for website accessibility.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are internationally recognized standards developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) that provide guidelines and criteria for making web content accessible to people with disabilities. WCAG outlines best practices for web developers to ensure that websites and web applications are perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust for all users, including those with disabilities.

The ADA has adopted the WCAG as their benchmark for measuring the accessibility (ADA compliance) of a website.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal law in the United States that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities, and requires businesses, employers, and public entities to provide equal access and accommodations to people with disabilities in areas such as employment, public services, telecommunications, and public accommodations.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has declared that websites are places of public accommodations and are therefore legally required to be accessible to individuals with disabilities.

In general, websites can be more challenging for people with disabilities to use if they are not designed with accessibility in mind. Common disabilities that can impact website usability include, but are not limited to, visual impairments, hearing impairments, motor impairments, and cognitive impairments. For example:

1. Visual impairments: People with visual impairments may use screen readers, which are software programs that read aloud the content of web pages, or rely on other assistive technologies such as magnifiers or braille displays. Websites that are not properly coded with semantic HTML, lack alternative text for images, or have poor color contrast can pose challenges for people with visual impairments.


2. Hearing impairments: People with hearing impairments may rely on captions or transcripts for video or audio content, or may use assistive technologies such as hearing aids or cochlear implants. Websites that do not provide captioning for multimedia content or lack visual alternatives for auditory information can be difficult for people with hearing impairments to use.


3. Motor impairments: People with motor impairments may have difficulty using a mouse or keyboard, and may rely on alternative input methods such as switches, voice recognition, or eye-tracking devices. Websites that are not keyboard accessible or have small buttons or links can present challenges for people with motor impairments.


4. Cognitive impairments: People with cognitive impairments may have difficulty with comprehension, memory, or problem-solving. Websites that have complex navigation, dense content, or lack clear instructions can be confusing or overwhelming for people with cognitive impairments.

Website owners can make their website ADA compliant by implementing options such as alternative text for images, color contrast, keyboard accessibility, captions for videos and audio, descriptive headings, accessible forms, proper HTML markup, regular accessibility audits, and consulting with accessibility experts while following established guidelines like WCAG.

AccessiBe’s accessWidget can remedy most of these issues using AI. Consulting with developers like us can help take care of the rest.

Website overlay applications like AccessiBe’s accessWidget typically work by adding an additional layer of code to a website, which can modify the website’s appearance and functionality in real-time to make it more accessible to people with disabilities. This overlay can include features such as alternative text for images, keyboard navigation, font resizing, color contrast adjustments, and other accessibility enhancements. Website overlays can be activated by users with disabilities when they visit a website.

For website owners it may be helpful to know overlay applications do not change the core website code at all. Rather it affects the code rendered in a browser, so anyone using the overlay application to customize the website to fit their own disability, is creating a unique experience only for themselves and will have no impact at all on any other users of the same website.

The accessWidget is designed to audit, remediate, and maintain compliance on website pages and the elements contained therein, that render in a browser as HTML. That basically covers all pages that make up all websites.

The accessWidget may not be able to fully remediate unusual or extremely unique/proprietary elements in a webpage. If such elements exist on your site it may be something our developers can remediate manually in the event that the accessWidget was not able to do so.

Media files (video and audio files) and other non-web standard documents are beyond the scope of the accessWidget. Documents that cannot be made accessible by the accessWidget include the following common formats:

Portable Document Format (.pdf)
PowerPoint (.ppt)
Excel (.xslx, .xls)
Word (.docx, .doc)

It is important to know that if your website includes documents like these, they are subject to the same ADA compliance requirements as the rest of your website.

We can make media files and these document formats accessible and ADA compliant as an optional separate service. Please contact us to get a quote.

If you want to take advantage of our exclusive discounted pricing, please purchase your license through us. The process is simple and we’ll help you at each step along the way:

1 – We’ll audit your site and determine if you have ADA compliance issues.

2 – We’ll send you a quote with our discounted pricing for the plan your website requires, which is based on the number of pages your site has, or if your monthly traffic is over 100,000 visitors. There is no immediate requirement to accept our quote. You can move on to step 3 first (a free trial) if you prefer.

3 – If you would like to try the accessWidget on your website free for 7 days, we’ll arrange that for you. Please note, if you decide you do not want the accessWidget on your website after the trial, we’ll waive any installation fee if you needed Accessifi (us) to install it for you. It’s not a free trial unless it’s actually free, right?

4 – If you decide to purchase from Accessifi and take advantage of our discounted pricing, we’ll send you an invoice with access to a secure online credit card payment page. The license is active from the creation date of the invoice, and payment is typically due within 7 days of the invoice date. This allows us time to cancel the license with accessiBe if you change your mind.

If you have any questions at all about this process, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Absolutely! AccessiBe is a globally renowned company with a reputation as a leading provider of website accessibility solutions. We completely understand that some of our new clients may prefer to work directly with AccessiBe.

All we ask is that you please click on this link to visit the AccessiBe site:

https://accessibe.com/a/a2i3kaw

This link is unique to Accessifi and tells AccessiBe that we sent you their way. If you purchase your license after following our link, AccessiBe will give us a commission (no extra charge for you) which helps us tremendously. Thank you!

Yes! AccessiBe will provide all the same services whether you buy your license from us, or directly from them. All licenses include the Litigation Support Package.

Most importantly, don’t panic.

An accessible, ADA compliant website should mitigate the potential for lawsuits, but still anyone can make a claim for any reason. The accessibility statement and monthly compliance audits available to you should be enough to stop any claim in its tracks, but in the rare case that they do not, accessiBe provide you with the Litigation Support Package.

Here is how you should respond to a claim.

1: Let us know. Email us all the details to [email protected]. We’ll provide you with the documentation you need to reply with. This will include the accessibility statement for the site in question, as well as any previous monthly compliance audits that have been conducted. Send these documents to the attorney or plaintiff who contacted you. These documents are a certification that your site has undergone specific changes to be accessible to people with disabilities as referenced by the WCAG.

2: If they still persist in refuting your site’s compliance, even with the supporting documentation, please let us know so we can initiate contact with accessiBe to provide you with additional information that affirms your compliance via the Litigation Support Package. The package will be custom-built after accessiBe’s tech team thoroughly reviews the letter in relation to the website in question. The accessiBe team will conduct a thorough deep dive of your site’s compliance and provide you with additional compliance audits, multiple accessibility reviews on the domain, advice on responding to the plaintiff, as well as further supporting documentation.

We asked ChatGPT that same question and they responded with a very reassuring “No”.