ADA, GDPR and other website STANDARDS
Over the past few months about 60 credit unions and 50 banks have been sued for allegedly violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This is a tricky situation because changes to the ADA Section 508 rules await changes but the U.S. Congress. Most websites are not developed to include ADA compliance. This means you risk legal action despite the dismissal of some cases.
Your site presents more challenges than other businesses because many pages and functions reside behind a secure login. Not only the public pages must read for ADA compliance but online banking, mobile apps, loan applications, electronic documents and more.
As with most credit union and community bank technology this involves your staff and multiple vendors.
What should you do? Perform a quick test with automated tools of your site for ADA, GDPR and other compliance standards (see the links below). Then you should fix it.
Coppermoon helps bring your site into compliance. Working the the right vendors we make sure your website serves your members/customers well and reduces your risk. We don’t sell or recommend any particular vendor or technology. We advise you and your team on vendor capabilities and options, then you decide.
Your website is key to your virtual branch strategy. It’s as important (maybe more) to your success as your brick-and-mortar branches and a key technology on par with your core.
Beyond the present risk of ADA litigation, consider your web presence. Is your website?
- Mobile responsive - automatically detect and correctly display on any mobile device.
- Simple to navigate - members see countless websites and expect design conventions to easily find loan applications, contact and routing numbers, as well as other information. Your site is not the place for 'cool' art.
- Comply with standards - ADA is at the top of the list today. GDPR is coming (unless you have members in Europe, then that’s today, too). W3C guidelines and technical conventions.
- Secure - hackers target your credit union to embed malware, trojans, and viruses.
If you answer 'no' to any of these questions, your site needs an update.
Here are some helpful links about the ADA website accessibility:
https://www.section508.gov/content/build/website-accessibility-improvement
https://www.cujournal.com/news/credit-unions-and-banks-are-sitting-ducks-for-ada-lawsuits
https://www.americanbanker.com/news/banks-are-sitting-ducks-for-ada-lawsuits
https://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/tools/
https://www.webaccessibility.com
Send us a message and we'll get right back to you to arrange a time to chat about this critical topic.