In May Charles #Schwab announced that it will make its #website more #accessible for all customers, particularly those who are blind.
This high-profile development was part of the settlement reached with Kit Lau, a Charles Schwab customer for more than 25 years. A long-time customer, one day she found that she could no longer navigate the Schwab website using #JAWS software and was prevented from making trades on-line. As part of the settlement, Charles Schwab agreed to implement Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (#WCAG) Version 2.0 which will make its website navigable by disabled customers.
With this settlement, Charles Schwab joins 15 other large companies which have settled website accessibility complaints. For example, Target Corp. recently paid over $6 million to settle a website #ADA class action. Most probably, we haven’t seen the end of it. As of December 31, 2011, more than 13,130 law suites had been filed under the ADA, and the trend continues to grow. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has not approved and adopted any formal standards for website accessibility and recently withdrew its Notice of Proposed Rule Making for web access standards.
What does this settlement mean to you? If you have not examined your website for ADA compliance, now is the time to audit your website and implement changes to make it accessible, if you have not taken action to make them accessible to disabled customers. You can learn more about accessibility, ADA, and our user experience and accessibility optimization services on our website at ogisolutions.com.
