What Is An Accessibility Overlay?
Overlays are a broad term for technologies that aim to improve the accessibility of a website.They apply third-party source code (typically JavaScript displaying as a widget) to make improvements to the front-end code of the website. Typically, the companies who market these accessibility widgets claim, through their sometimes ubiquitous advertising efforts, that this one line of code - which you can buy - will immediately make your website accessible to a whole range of disabled persons.
What Does It Promise To Do?
The normal advertising by the overlay promoters says that their widgets will immediately bring a website into compliance with the Americans With Disability Act of 1990. It's not quite that simple. The actual ADA does not include any specifications regarding what conformance to the act on websites would look like. So, I think it's hard to make a blanket statement that one line of code inserted into all websites will make them all compliant with the law. How does it know?
While the use of an overlay may improve compliance with a handful of provisions in major accessibility standards, full compliance cannot be achieved with an overlay. Among the many claims made by overlay vendors is the claim that the use of their product will bring the site into compliance with accessibility standards such as WCAG 2.x, related and derivative standards, and laws that mandate compliance with those standards. Conformance to a standard means that you meet or satisfy the ‘requirements’ of the standard...Given that conformance is defined as meeting all requirements of the standard, these products' documented inability to repair all possible issues means that they cannot bring a website into compliance. Products marketed with such claims should be viewed with significant skepticism.
OverlayFactSheet.com
I've Been Doing Research For A Good, Long While
I've been in sales and marketing my entire adult life. One thing I've learned is that there are a whole bunch of people in that industry who will misrepresent reality to sell something. Yep, lie.
I wrote a blog post on one of my other sites about this kind of treachery. Having been conned myself a few times, I've become quite wary of sales pitches in general. One of the first questions about anything, really, is, "Does The Thing You're Being Asked To Sell Actually Work?"
When I was researching high blood pressure for one of my reports, I came across an article highlighting some powerfully positive news regarding a certain procedure or product. It seemed credible and important. It was neither. When I tracked the information all the way back to the original study publication, the results of the study were based on treatment for a total of 9 study participants. Those results never made it into my final report.
A friend of mine asked me to help him with some outbound marketing for the local franchise of a national lawn care company. I web-crawled for a while and discovered a startlingly large volume of simply awful reviews about the company and their services. None of the reviews had been addressed by anyone in the company. My friend just said that they ignored all of that feedback and tried to sell to people who hadn't seen the reviews. Wow. No, thanks.
It's Time To Introduce The Drunk
A drunk uses a lamppost for support, not for illumination. This is how some people use statistics or articles they've found about a subject.
The integrity-challenged researcher will discard any facts or statistics that don't conform to a predetermined position. It's as if the facts that conflict with the predetermined outcome never existed. They were simply discarded. The chosen, selected facts are then used for support; support of a predetermined position or outcome. In other words, the resulting presentation is just a dressed up lamppost of the support type. And it hasn't even been used to illuminate the subject.
What a true, unbiased researcher does is to use their various "lampposts" to illuminate the darkest corners of the facts; to flesh them out to create a true and authentic picture of reality. The researcher will seek enlightenment. When it comes to serving the various disabled communities, it's too important to go looking just for support of a position. We must look for, and walk in, the light. Be enlightened.
The Opposition To Overlays
In my research, I found significant opposition to overlays from disability activists and experts around the world. Actually, I was quite surprised. The opposition document quoted above (http://overlayfactsheet.com) currently has over 700 signatures from experts all over the globe. They all advocate against using overlay widgets to provide accessibility for the disabled communities to the digital world. It feels like a very powerful statement to me.
The judicial community has also shown to have a problem with overlays not truly providing accessibility. A post on the site essentialaccessibility.com explains one litigated case that is illustrative. The case is Anthony Hammond Murphy vs. Eyebobs.
Eyebobs had installed an overlay provided by a very prominent promoter of overlay technology. The company was sued by a blind person asserting Eyebobs' website was not compliant with the relevant ADA section (Title III).
According to the report on this site, it seems like a settlement was reached in this case: "In a proposed settlement agreement, the owner of the website has now agreed to an extensive accessibility program with mandatory reporting. The owner is also required to pay $16,000 in legal fees for the plaintiff, in addition to the cost of mounting their defense."
One responsibility of the defendant outlined in the settlement: "Within 18 months, Eyebobs is required to develop and implement an accessibility strategy, incorporating detailed steps into its accessibility policies and practices to ensure its digital properties become and remain accessible."
And another: "Within 18 months, Eyebobs has to train all employees responsible for website and mobile application design, development, and maintenance to ensure future design, development,and maintenance are accessible and remain accessible."
Nothing spurs performance like a judge looking over your shoulder, eh?
The conclusion in that piece is succinct: "As the Eyebobs lawsuit demonstrates, overlays are wholly insufficient solutions for ensuring digital accessibility."
UsableNet reports that, "Businesses using accessibility widgets received more than 300 lawsuits, a big YOY increase. In 2021, we reviewed 400 cases for the entire year. These lawsuits list the widget features as a barrier to equal access in addition to WCAG violations and other user web barriers." You can download the full report on their website.
I Urge You To Honor The Spirit Of The ADA
The spirit of the ADA is to serve all people equally. It was meant to cure some blinding inequities in business operation - including digital properties. The intent of the Act is not to punish. The intent is to mandate equal service to all communities.
If a person visiting your website has a visual disability, would you intentionally turn him or her off and, practically speaking, turn him or her away. Would you purposely disenfranchise the disabled communities with callus disregard for their rights of accommodation? If so, shame on you.
If you're reading this, you now know enough about the importance of accessibility of your website for all. You might have to spend a little money and some time - particularly to become more educated about the remedies available to you. The best time to have designed your digital real estate for all constituencies was at the beginning of its creation.
The second best time is now.
The "You Got The Guts?" Challenge
If you'd really like to actually know what it feels like for a disabled person (in this case blind) to try to use a website with an overlay, watch the video below.
One Last Thing Before We Go
For their 2021 national convention, NFB solicited sponsors for the convention itself. However, so many blind persons and advocates objected so vociferously to one of the major sponsors (an "overlay" provider) that the national organization reviewed the practices of the company and then "the Board revoked accessiBe’s sponsorship of the convention on June 22, 2021."
Having spent a decade immersed in the sale of sponsorships, I can attest that decision had to have been a wrenching one for the board.
Partial content from the organizations' press release: "the Board believes that accessiBe currently engages in behavior that is harmful to the advancement of blind people in society. In particular, it is the opinion of the Board that accessiBe peremptorily and scornfully dismisses the concerns blind people have about its products and its approach to accessibility. The Board is deeply concerned that the company treats blind access technology experts shabbily and disrespectfully in private meetings and disparages the blind in the press and their other communications. It seems that accessiBe fails to acknowledge that blind experts and regular screen reader users know what is accessible and what is not." Read the entire press release.
How Can We Help You?
Our goal here is not to leave you stranded on the desert island of non-compliance misery. All is not lost. We've been working on this as a challenge for all small businesses. A lot of time and energy has been expended.
But, we do have a plan that can assist you. You can check it out here.
Our goal here is not to leave you stranded on the desert island of non-compliance misery. All is not lost. We've been working on this as a challenge for all small businesses. A lot of time and energy has been expended.
But, we do have a plan that can assist you. You can check it out here.