Web Accessibility ADA Compliance: Is It A Shakedown?

Sept 28, 2019 by Internet Man

Suing high-income companies over their web site (not being accessible to the disabled) is the latest craze in the legal industry. It is prevalent and increasing. Predatory attorneys are sucker punching companies by filing suits without warning. Is it real? We’ve had an Accessibility Form designed for the disabled on a high traffic site for over a year. We have yet to receive anything from an actual disabled person. The bottom line is attorneys have an official government standard and evidence that your web site does not comply. From their perspective it is an open and shut case. It is the perfect legal shakedown. They’re defending the disabled. Who can argue with that?

What Is Web Accessibility Really?

Web accessibility mandates that your web site must be fully usable by someone who is disabled. That means the site must be fully functional without a mouse. It must be fully function to someone without vision. Web readers need sufficient contrast to read text from a site out loud. There is an entire world built on accessibility browsers that the average web designer knows little about. It is in the world of disability where your site must hold up.

This presents a quagmire for business. Web sites today can easily exceed 20,000 lines of code. For years designers have been pushing web sites into increasing complicated territory. Web sites are comprised of up to 50 include files. These are outside files that are called into the web page.

If you print out the code of a web site you would be looking at a book about five inches thick. The attorney will go to a specific page, then to a specific line, then to a specific location within the line and point out where it is out of compliance. As a business owner you are put in an impossible situation. Most business owners, and many web designers, don’t even know the book exists. They don’t know what is under the hood.

Is being sued for a non-compliant web site a real threat?

Yes. Until recently threats have been far off in the distance. Now it’s real. I am involved in several cases. Unlike before, these aren’t high profile businesses. These are average businesses. Web accessibility lawsuits are low hanging fruit for the legal profession. Anyone can test a site for web accessibility. Testing does not require web expertise. When the site comes back dozens of red flag accessibility errors it’s a target. The targets are unlimited.

The scary thing is no one is thinking about this. The business owner isn’t thinking about it. WordPress isn’t thinking about it. The web designer isn’t thinking about it. The only one thinking about it is the attorney. Think of him coming to court with a hand truck carrying boxes of documentation against you. In those boxes is a printout of your web site. It is all time-stamped direct from your server. If he’s coming to court with a hand truck, you better have something on your site. Don’t get caught without evidence on your behalf.

Is my web designer responsible for Web Accessibility?

Not likely. I’m Internet Man. I’ve build over a thousand web sites. I have never had anyone request a web accessible web site. On the contrary, everyone wants the Wow factor. The business owner wants it. The web designer wants it. Designers worry about how the site looks on the desktop, how it looks on the phone, and if can it by indexed by Google. Designers do not worry Web Accessibility unless were told.

When it comes to web sites, my industry loves to pile on the code. WordPress, bootstrap, whatever, the first thing they do is call in tons of include files. An accessibility critical error can be anywhere. Just last week I found a red flag error in a wordpress plug-in intended to make creating a site easier. I had to correct the plug-in to remove the error. If you update the plug-in the fix goes away and you are back to square one. Don’t think you can open a web site like a printed brochure and fix it. That is not the case. You need special programming knowledge to even find what is wrong. This is a technically tough problem. You wouldn’t think web sites are that complicated but they are.

What should the average business do?

Start building your case. What you don’t want is to go into court with nothing. When it is your time to talk you have to come back with evidence. Even if it is not a full counter argument, something better than nothing. This is what I recommend for all businesses:

1. Take inventory of sites you have out there. Many businesses may have satellite sites. This was common practice for marketing. Tell your web designer to take it down. Web designers only do what they’re told. Make sure you instruct them to curtail old, unused sites.

2. Put a web accessibility statement on your web site. State you are aware of web accessibility and are working on it. Provide a name, email, and phone number for disabled people to contact you.

3. Appoint a web accessibility point of contact. Make sure they respond to accessibility requests. This means having a real person pick up the phone, not general voice mail.

4. Test your site. Take care of the most egregious Red Flag accessibility errors first. Most business owners do not want to spend money on this. But when it comes legal action you have to show evidence of improvement. After removing Red Flags, start working on Yellow Flags. Then start working on contrast errors.

Hopefully your designer keeps copious records. As you take these steps make sure it is documented (save the invoices). When it comes to the Internet, it’s easy for the enemy to download and print evidence. As a business owner you need evidence too. Don’t get caught. Start now. I come down on the side of the business owner. My job is to defend them. I am not anti-disabled. I believe they should be able to use the site. But I am anti-shakedown. I don’t like that.

Revolutionize Your Business With Web Based Software

January 31, 2019 by Internet Man

If you have a feeling that software could help your business, you’ve come to the right place. Internet Man has developed software for 25 years. I can tell you your feelings are correct. Each time we complete and deploy a new cloud system that business gets better. Their users can conduct more business with greater control than they dreamed possible. In every case Web software has been a resounding success.

Who you choose to develop your system is critical. Software development is a level up from web design. Not every web designer can do it. It requires knowledge and experience. For example, how you setup your database in the beginning can make or break a system. We’ve been doing this for years. The software we’ve developed has been in use for decades.

If you think cloud software for your business is out of reach, it’s not. It is as simple as calling us to discuss your idea. We develop exactly what the customer needs. It is a turn-key service. We take care of all technical matters. You tell us what you need. The next thing you’ll see is your software on your desktop. You log in and start using it. Call us. We’re down to earth.

Internet Man’s Diverse Portfolio Of Web Based Software

July 1, 2019 by Internet Man

Agency Management System

• Insurance Agents binding business on your site
• Built-in detailed database of agencies
• More efficient for your customers

Imagine hundreds of agents logging in to your site to do their work daily. We do this all the time for the insurance industry. Using our Agency Management System, agents log in once and have access to multiple carriers instantly. The system is so simple agents wouldn’t think of going anywhere else. The managing agency gets a percentage of the all business closed in the client portal. It’s a modern, efficient and powerful way to do business. If you feel a customer portal would help your business, call us. We’ll talk specifics. We’ve been doing this for years.

Claims Management System

• Manage hundreds of claims easily
• Identify trouble situations for non-renewal
• Upload documentation directly to the claim

In the insurance industry claims are a big deal. It is critical that claims are managed carefully. We created the Claims Management System to help Insurance Managing Agencies manage claims better. Claims managed by queues. Documentation is collected and uploaded directly to the claim. High-risk policies, agents, and programs are identified immediately. Insurance Managing Agents represent multiple carriers. This makes managing claims difficult. Claim Management System organizes the claims desk by distributing work throughout the company.

Internet Man: Tell Us What You Need

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Contact Information

Company: Internet Man, Inc.
Location: 12591 Red Hill Ave., Tustin CA, 92780, USA
Phone: 714-368-1500
Email: InternetMan@InternetMan.com

Testimonials…

There is only one Internet Services company that I recommend to my clients and friends… That’s Internet Man, Inc., John Mills, 714-368-1500. They do great work, very creative, e-commerce guru and fair rates…

John Gleason

I LOVE my web host. Their programming is very reasonable. John redesigned my site. They did their job quickly. John Mills is the owner and is great to work with. I like them because they have a wonderful infrastructure with backup from a top company. My site is never down. They also have many other utilities I haven’t begun to scratch the surface to use.

Steve Stein

I just spoke with my client. It looks like everything is working just fine. Thank you for your quick response time, professionalism and quality service. I look forward to referring more of my clients to you.

Nathan Lewis

You should be hearing from John Mills tomorrow. His prices are very competitive, and I have yet to hear of any complaints from other people who I’ve referred to him. When you call, he’s always there to answer the phone personally. They do e-commerce shopping carts, Internet marketing plans, search engine placement, multimedia, hosting, and back-end database management, just to name a few.

Ed Dellis

I just got off the phone with John Mills, and he gave me a quick tour of the new back-end of our on-line database system. To say it’s impressive, is an understatment. We are now LIVE and on-line with the system, meaning the registrations are dumping into the database automatically, and Visa/Mastercards are being processed automatically, as well.

David Pyles

The Court multimedia presentation Interface is OUTSTANDING!!! I love it!!!!! It’s PERFECT!! You’re the King!!!

Stephen Brown

The suite of software looks super!!! I have only been looking today, but I was impressed. I will logon from home tonight to judge the speed and response. The incredible this is that John wrote all the software to do this, so if there ever is a problem, he can definitely fix it.

Dr. William J. Devers

Just wanted to quickly say thanks for setting up the virtual directories on my website (and thanks so much for walking me through it!). I’ve used it a couple of times already to get large photo files to clients and it works like a dream! Again, just a thank you for the awesome job and getting my act together.

Susan Burt

Internet Man – For Businesses Serious About The Internet

Web Design

Internet Man designs web sites look great on phones as well as desktops. Upgrade your 10 year old site. Make an new impression on prospects and customers. Be proud of your site. Let the world know who you are!

Web Programming

Internet Man develops system that people log to and collaborate. If you are overwhelmed with complexity let us know. We have been running complicated businesses with web software for over 15 years!

Web Marketing

Google and Bing have taken there listings for themselves. Getting ranked organically (free) is harder now. We implement and manage social media, local search, pay-per-click, and remarking ad campaigns!

Email Services

No busy professional wants to get bogged down with email problems. Don’t tackle this yourself. Go with Internet Man. If you do you’ll have email administrator with 15 years experience to call!