The Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”, sometimes “AwDA”) is a federal law passed in 1990 that aims to protect the rights of disabled people to ensure they are not discriminated against due to their disability. The focus of “ADA compliant” websites has become a hot topic of discussion lately. You’ve likely heard of the issue by now, but perhaps you’re not entirely sure what it means for your practice. Is it really true that a few simple mistakes can land you in legal hot water?

If you are a current client of MDA-endorsed Officite, then your website meets the current suggested ADA accessibility guidelines. In addition, Officite will keep all of its clients’ websites updated to meet these guidelines without any action required by its clients. If your website is not hosted by Officite, for pricing and additional information on any of Officite’s services, please call 877-889-4054 and share that you are an MDA member.

• Officite Website Accessibility FAQs

Other Resources

To assist both the members and the state associations with this issue, the American Dental Association has prepared the following documents :

• Website Accessibility Checklist. A useful WCAG 2.0 checklist available from Wuhcag.com to assist you when working through the guidelines.
• Website Accessibility. A quick rundown, in a brief, executive summary-type format, of steps that members should consider in the short term to make their websites less susceptible to a claim.
• Website Accessibility Claims: Strategies for Dentists. A “white paper” type document that describes in greater detail strategies for members (and their attorneys) in case they receive a demand letter of the type described above. The paper also includes the actions that members might consider in order to make their websites more fully accessible to persons with disabilities in the long term.
• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 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. Following these guidelines will also often make your Web content more usable to users in general.
• ADA Website Accessibility Webinar. Held on March 20, 2017, the first part of the ADA webinar included a general overview of the current accessibility environment, legal best practices (imagery, video, page titles, tables, content, color contrast) and resources. The second part of the webinar provided a detailed tutorial session for those dental societies who are a part of the ADA Branded Web Template community.

If you have a site on the Branded Web Templates and you have questions about AwDA or you would like more information regarding the Branded Web Templates, please feel free to contact Kamilah Paden at 312.440.2821, or Mike Maddaloni at 312.440.4628.

If you have questions about Americans with Disabilities Act, feel free to contact the ADA Legal Division at 800-621-8099, ext. 2499.