Your business's digital platforms must be accessible to reach the widest possible audience and avoid potential legal issues. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a business’s website (along with its physical location) is considered a place of public accommodation. Companies must maintain their websites so that they don't exclude or discriminate against people with disabilities.
It seems straightforward, but this raises important questions about company liability. For instance, what if your business uses a third-party website host? At that point, whose responsibility is it to maintain accessibility? Furthermore, who is liable if the website violates the ADA?
This piece will explore the digital accessibility obligations of companies that use a third-party web host.
ADA obligations
Let’s start with a brief overview of the accessibility laws here.
Title III of the ADA states that discrimination based on a disability is prohibited in places of public accommodation. Places of public accommodation are locations of a business that affect commerce. During the ADA's publication, businesses were mostly thought of as having physical locations. In the wake of the internet's integration with commerce, there has been debate about whether a business's website counts as a public accommodation.
This issue was more or less decided in 2022 due to the Robles vs. Domino’s Pizza case. The ruling established that the website of any business with a physical location is to be considered a place of public accommodation.
In these instances, businesses are legally responsible for making sure their websites (as well as their physical places of public accommodation) are accessible to all people.
This obligation extends to businesses using third-party services to maintain or build websites.
Third-Party Website Hosting Services
It is common for a company to use third-party hosts for its website. Businesses design and manage the content of their websites while third-party servers host the actual websites.
Examples of these independent site platforms include Wix, Squarespace, and WordPress. There is diversity among these services as some offer more in the way of design freedom than others. Some offer rigid formats, while others offer a high level of flexibility in how sites on their platforms look.
It stands to reason that, since it is their platform in question, these third-party services are responsible for providing all the tools necessary to ensure that the sites they host are accessible. Responsibility for doing the due diligence of picking an accessible platform, however, ultimately rests with the owner of the site IP.
Your Obligations as a Company
It's your duty as a company to ensure you use the right tools to ensure your digital presence and products are accessible. These tools include the third-party website host you may use. While the site host may be responsible for maintaining accessibility in the tools it provides you to make your website, it’s on you if you choose an inaccessible platform.
It’s similar to renting a property to host your business. While the property owner does bear their share of the responsibility to maintain ADA standards, it's also on the renting business to do its part as far as their business is concerned.
As we’ve learned from the Robles vs. Domino case, company liability is pretty high. ADA violations can result in legal headaches for your business if your website isn't accessible. You don’t want to get caught off guard by an inaccessible third-party host.
So what is there to do?
Choose a third-party service provider that prioritizes accessibility
When deciding on a third-party site host, do your due diligence. Make sure that the host prioritizes and values digital accessibility. This will ensure you have all the tools at your disposal to provide a cohesive user experience on your website.
Take, for instance, the site host, Siteimprove. Siteimprove offers accessibility testing for its client sites. Testing is an incredibly important tool for sustained accessibility on a site.
Other accessibility-minded third-party platforms include:
Understand Digital Accessibility Standards
As the previous passage indicates, accessibility is becoming a common priority among third-party site hosts. In this case, it's good news for your business, as it reduces the chances of a slip-up by the host. However, this moves more responsibility onto your business to be accessible.
As such, you need to know what standards your business should take to ensure digital accessibility. The best tool is to consult the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
Conduct regular accessibility testing
Having made a site using a third-party host. You must ensure your business has done its part and continues to follow accessibility trends.
Regular accessibility testing is the best practice for any company to follow. Through manual or automatic testing, you should constantly evaluate and re-evaluate your website for any accessibility issues. As previously mentioned, some third-party site hosts offer rudimentary accessibility testing tools to, at the very least, establish baseline accessibility compliance.
Conclusion
While third-party site hosts bear some responsibility for website accessibility, businesses are ultimately responsible for whether or not they choose to use an inaccessible server. As accessibility becomes more ubiquitous, more and more third-party services are embracing making their tools accommodating for all ability levels. Thus, a business must use these services to ensure they do their part.
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