Change creates opportunities. These days, the digital landscape is evolving rapidly. The increasingly connected world we live in is bringing more people online, including blind and deaf users, users with reading disabilities, and users with physical differences. Insuring that digital platforms are fully accessible to all of these consumers represents a major challenge, to be sure. But brands that embrace such change can elevate themselves and their products, by seizing the opportunity to grow, evolve and lead.
Failing to account for change, on the other hand, is a losing strategy. A high-profile and successful lawsuit against Domino’s, and a handful of other recent accessibility cases, has pushed the rules of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to the top of technology news feeds. And while litigation around ADA compliance has long centered on “traditional” websites, massive implications for mobile apps and app lifecycle management are coming down the pike.
Among the myriad tasks involved in mobile app lifecycle management, strict compliance to ADA rules, for most brands, falls towards the bottom of the to-do list. Achieving 100% accessibility coverage for a mobile product can be a Herculean task without an urgent pay-off. As a result, other priorities have come first.
But that needs to change. As mobile connectivity increases and the “internet of things” expands, ADA compliance for mobile apps must become a top priority. Brands need to consider accessibility in terms of risk tolerance, yes, but also in terms of how accessibility can make its products more inclusive, sustainable, and primed for growth.
