So is your business website accessible to the disabled?

If it is not, a lawsuit could be coming your way.

Business owners and web developers across the

nation are on edge and rightly so.

After our Better Call

Behnken, investigation uncovered thousands of ADA lawsuits

targeting website accessibility, 8 on your side.

Investigator Shannon Behnken returns now

with an update on this story.

As soon as we heard that the first time you

told me before the story aired, I went, what?

Because I think it does take

a lot of people by surprise. It does.

And I'm hearing from quite a few business owners

who tell me that they didn't know about this.

And professionals who developed the websites,

they don't know about it either.

And that's the scary thing.

And that's why so many business owners need

to make sure that they didn't buy a

website template that can get them sued.

We have great customers.

Ben Tundis was stunned when he was

served with an ADA lawsuit over his

new website for Island Comfort Footwear.

We're all sitting ducks.

A blind woman claims she couldn't buy shoes because

the site was not compatible with her screen reader.

The woman has sued 175 businesses. But

now they're attacking mom and pop stores.

I guess you'd call it small business owners, you know.

We just can't write some big check and walk away.

Under the ADA, businesses that are open to

the public cannot discriminate against people with disabilities.

In recent years, lawyers have won or

settled thousands of cases over website accessibility.

Even so, Shawn Warmouth at Thirteen05

Creative tells me, many website developers

are not aware of these requirements.

Or if you build a building, it has to be ADA compliant

and there's an inspector who comes out and

tells you, hey, this light switch isn't right,

or this door handle isn't right.

So you know exactly what is and isn't. With a website,

it's the Wild West. We don't know.

The ADA doesn't specify how websites

should be ADA accessible, but there

are industry standards recognized by courts.

This is an area of concern.

However, Chris M. Law of Accessibility Track

says those standards are rarely included in

basic website templates businesses buy.

If you're a small business owner and you're

going to have your parking lot redone, nobody

is going to ask you any questions about

the blue paint for the wheelchair spaces.

It's all just built in.

Not the case with websites.

The onus for accessibility is on the small business

owner, not on the people that provide the services.

So, buyer beware.

Before you hire a web developer or buy a template to

build your own site, you need to ask some questions.

And if your developer doesn't know about ADA accessibility, or

they're not willing to learn about it, you may just

want to find yourself a new company to work with.

Well, with so many people and businesses already

have their website, so it's one thing if

you're starting out and we'll go search for

this and pony up whatever that cost is.

We still don't know exactly what that is,

but but you already have a website.

What do what do you do?

Well, you know, it is complicated because the guy that

we spoke with today, he is a website developer, and

he had to start looking some of this up today.

He says he's already called his attorney, and

they're looking into what they need to do.

But there are companies out there, national companies and

a few local ones that audit your site.

They can tell you what you need

to do, what's wrong with your site.

Also, you can go to the Lighthouse for

the Blind, and they will help you too.

You need someone to audit it and tell you

what you need to do to fix it.

It can cost quite a bit of money

as we were talking about yesterday. The

blind deserves to have this accessibility.

But at the same time, if you have a website and

you don't know about this, I mean, really, you're a victim.

It's almost like you're being targeted

in this sort of thing.

So a lot to learn here, a lot more to come on it.

Thank you.