2019 Multifamily Innovation Digital Magazine
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<strong>Digital</strong><br />
Inclusion<br />
WHAT MULTIFAMILY OPERATORS NEED TO<br />
KNOW ABOUT ADA COMPLIANCE FOR<br />
APARTMENT WEBSITES<br />
BY KERRY KIRBY, FOUNDER & CEO OF 365 CONNECT<br />
IT’S NO SECRET that our society heavily depends<br />
upon the Internet to conduct tasks common to our<br />
daily lives. We are so immersed in its accompanying<br />
social and cultural shifts that it’s become difficult<br />
to imagine life without Google, social media, or<br />
voice technology. However, for the 1 billion people<br />
living with disabilities worldwide, technology has<br />
progressed much more slowly, pointing to larger<br />
accessibility issues.<br />
<strong>Digital</strong> inclusion has become a critical social issue<br />
to the nearly 61 million Americans with disabilities.<br />
Even though the web offers a wealth of resources,<br />
only half of the American population living with a<br />
disability uses the Internet daily. This statistic can<br />
be explained by the fact that 98 percent of websites<br />
do not meet accessibility standards, ultimately<br />
alienating an entire demographic of potential users.<br />
Because users with disabilities cannot utilize technologies<br />
as seamlessly as non-disabled users, the<br />
growing need for digital inclusion is rapidly transforming<br />
how businesses must present their products<br />
and services online.<br />
Though the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)<br />
pre-dates the Internet as we know it today, we now<br />
live in an interconnected world, one that is reliant on<br />
the web to deliver information, services, and resources<br />
through multiple online channels. As businesses<br />
and their brick-and-mortar locations become more<br />
digitally dependent on websites to transact business<br />
with both prospective and existing customers, a<br />
strong case has been made for these services to be<br />
accessible to everyone, including individuals with<br />
disabilities.<br />
The Nexus Between Physical Locations<br />
and Websites<br />
The fight for disability rights has been in full motion<br />
for some time, so most of us in the multifamily<br />
space have heard the term “surf-by-lawsuit,” where<br />
there is a legal push to tie ADA compliance into<br />
online services. The number of surf-by-lawsuits has<br />
more than tripled in the last two years, and according<br />
to a current report, website accessibility lawsuits<br />
are now being filed at the rate of 1-per hour. The top<br />
states for litigation are California, New York, Florida,<br />
New Jersey, and Texas, but these lawsuits are occurring<br />
nationwide.<br />
The basis for most surf-by-lawsuits is what is known<br />
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