What is the difference between ADA compliance and WCAG conformance? This is a question that I get asked a lot. People don’t understand which one they’re supposed to be using. When it comes to compliance with a law, an entire organization must comply with an entire law. What does that mean? Let’s break it down.
Key Differences:
- ADA Compliance: Refers to an entire organization complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act law.
- Like a “jar of marbles” where every part of the organization must follow applicable rules.
- Covers the entire organization’s operations.
- WCAG Conformance: Refers to a specific digital property (like a website) meeting Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
- Like a “single marble” in the jar.
- Cannot claim “ADA compliance” by only examining website conformance.
ADA Structure and Application:
- Title 1: Covers employee hiring.
- Only section with minimum business size requirements.
- Title 2: Applies to state/local government services.
- Applies to organizations that receive government funding to provide public services. (Examples: private trash collectors paid by towns, private schools accepting public money, nonprofits running state-funded campaigns).
- Title 3: Covers businesses/nonprofits serving the public.
- Applies to any organization “open to the public.”
- Some organizations may fall under both Title 2 and 3.
Important Clarifications:
- No minimum business size for Title 2 and 3 (customer-facing requirements).
- Physical location waivers don’t exempt websites from accessibility requirements.
- Web agencies should focus on WCAG conformance as helping toward ADA compliance.
- You can only state that a website conforms to WCAG guidelines at a specific time.
- Cannot make statements about an organization’s overall ADA compliance when only testing their website.
Transcript
What is the difference between ADA compliance and WCAG conformance? This is a question that I get asked a lot. People don’t understand which one they’re supposed to actually be saying. When it comes to compliance with a law, an entire organization must comply with an entire law.
We can think of an organization like a jar of marbles. There are a lot of little bits and pieces that go into a specific organization, whether it be a for-profit business or a not-for-profit or a government entity. For an organization to comply with the law, all parts of it must comply. Each part has a different set of rules that it needs to follow.
When we talk about compliance with a law, we actually mean the entire jar of marbles has each one of its marbles following the rules. When we talk about a website, we are talking about just one marble inside that jar. When we’re looking at just one marble, we cannot make a statement about the entire jar.
Just like if we’re looking at the social media. That’s just one marble. The email newsletter campaigns, the transactional emails, each of these are just one marble. When we’re talking about just one marble, we can’t talk about the entire organization and everything that it’s doing.
When it comes down to the ADA, I get a lot of questions about these titles. Titles are just sections of the ADA. Title 1 talks about hiring employees. This is the title within the ADA that has a minimum business size. There’s a requirement of a minimum number of employees before Title 1 applies. That is only relevant to Title 1.
Title 2 and Title 3 are about how a business treats its customers. So that has nothing to do with its employees. And for treating its customers, their There is no minimum business size. If you’ve heard that the ADA only applies to larger organizations, well, that’s only one piece of it.
That’s employees. When it comes to the website and how a business treats its customers, there is no minimum size. ADA Title 2 is about state and local government. It also impacts both for-profit businesses and not-for-profit organizations.
The trick here is follow the money. Where does the organization get its revenue? Here’s a couple of examples of where ADA Title 2 applies.
A company is paid by the town to collect residents trash. The revenue for this company comes from the town, and this company performs a service for the residents of the town because of that money. Therefore, Title 2.
The second one, a school takes public money for enrollment. It’s a private school. It accepts people from the general public, and it takes public money to perform services.
A nonprofit It runs an advocacy campaign based on a new state law. It’s paid by the state to produce materials for the advocacy campaign. It’s performing a function. For the public.
Ada Title III is where all of the businesses and nonprofits that serve the public come in. What the heck is serve the public? It basically means you are open to the public.
For example, a restaurant. It’s open to the public. It might require reservations. That’s fine. As long as someone can afford the bill, they’re allowed in the door. That’s for the public. Some organizations will fall under both Title 2 and Title 3.
The next question I get asked is, what if the business has a Title III waiver in place?
For example, in Virginia, there are a number of beautiful underground caverns. These were created by nature, and many of them cannot be made accessible without significant damage to the cavern. Because of this, they have a waiver that does not require them to meet certain aspects of ADA Title III with regard to their physical location.
Just because they have a waiver for their physical location does not mean that their website is exempt. They are still open to the public, and their website will still need to conform to WCAG.
When it comes to web agencies and when you’re talking to your clients, you need to understand that what you want to talk about is WCAG and how WCAG helps the organization move towards ADA compliance.
At most, you can say on a specific date and time, the website was tested and found to conform to specific guidelines of WCAG. The conformance of the website to WCAG will help the organization in their ADA compliance. But you yourself cannot talk about the business’s ADA compliance because that’s the entire jar of marbles, and you only are testing and looking at one individual marble.
You can’t make any comments about the whole jar when you’re only looking at one marble. If you found this video useful, give it a like and hit subscribe.