There is a panic among bloggers

Blogging groups are raving about this topic for a few days now: how to make your blog accessible so you don’t get sued.

It’s not a new term, but for whatever reason bloggers woke up now and went on full panic mode.

ADA stands for the Americans with Disabilities Act that was signed in 1990 and amended in 2009 in order to make businesses adhere to ADA requirements. Not just in the real world but online as well.

A website that is ADA compliant is designed in a way to be accessible to people with disabilities. That means that your website is friendly to screen readers or keyboard-only access tools so anyone can consume your content.

Some of the things you can do to make your website accessible are to add ALT text that actually describes what’s on the photo and not what SEO plugin or SEO gurus tell you. Use fonts that are easy to read, use colors that are eye-friendly. If you have a video, make sure that close captioning is on.

Why are bloggers panicking?

I was asking myself this question today, why are bloggers panicking now when ADA is present for 12 years?

Only one answer comes to my mind: money.

When rereading questions and comments in those groups I found a common denominator: ruthless promotion of someone’s newest course.

It’s as simple as that, a blogger found a profitable “niche” to create a course and all they have to do is create a demand for it. All you need to do is send one email to your subscribers asking them: is your blog ADA compliant? Then you wait a couple of days and present a solution: your newest $197 (pre-sale) course tackling this subject.

The next step is your affiliates who will promote your course everywhere and whenever someone asks a question, the answer will be: here’s my link to the course you will learn what you need to know.

On the other hand, there is someone else who can also benefit from causing panic. Who you might ask yourself? Companies that develop plugins that make it easier for disabled people to enjoy your website, e.g make a text bigger.

Now combine those two and you have a winner combination. Mentioned blogger will suggest additional resources, affiliate links of course, and the certain plugin will be there.

That wouldn't be a problem if said blogger isn't recommending a plugin that costs $420 per year. To make the thing even more bizarre is the fact that bloggers are not required to be ADA compliant if they don't have a business built on it and more than 10 employees.

So if you are a beginner or small blogger with very limited resources who the hell will you come up with the money to pay for the course ($197 in presale) and the recommended plugin because all you want is for your blog to be successful?

Can you make your blog ADA compliant by yourself?

Of course, you can, all you need is time and some research.

Here are some of the things you can do to make your website accessible:

• add ALT text that actually describes what’s on the photo and not what SEO plugin or SEO gurus tell you;
• use fonts that are easy to read;
• use colors that are eye-friendly;
• if you have a video, make sure that close captioning is on.

What do you think about this topic? Do you have a different opinion?

This story was originally published on Medium under Illumination publication.