How to be ADA Compliant with rezStream

Online Reservation System Requirements for ADA Compliance

Summary

• The Internet has changed how we interact with information and technology.
• That change extends to lodging and how people with disabilities are engaging with lodging websites and booking engines.
• Despite an absence of specific “website disability laws”, grieved parties challenge lodging operators with lawsuits under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) based on their views and interpretations of compliance, or rather lack thereof, with industry best practices.
• Accordingly, all lodging businesses are strongly advised to understand and implement website and booking engine best practices for ADA accessibility to reduce the risk of costly lawsuits.
• Moreover, it’s good business to appeal to all your potential guests.
• With an ecosystem of ADA compliant products and services, rezStream can help you.

Background

In 1973 Congress enacted the Rehabilitation Act to expand the protection of Americans with disabilities in programs conducted by federal agencies. In 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed and signed into law to further those protections to the private sector. In 1998, Congress added Section 508 to “… require Federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology (EIT) accessible to people with disabilities.” As a result of Section 508, federal, state, and local government websites must comply with specific legal standards to accommodate people with disabilities. However, that law does not apply to the private sector, and there are no absolute legal requirements for website accessibility for disabled people.

Instead, private sector websites are left with a collection of best practices, guidelines, standards, and accepted protocols for electronic accessibility. These standards are developed by the World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C, a member-driven international standards organization for the World Wide Web that ensures long-term growth for the web. The W3C has published their recommendations on electronic accessibility in their Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and their Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 2.0. The latest amendment to WCAG is 2.1 and was published in June 2018. The WCAG cover 12 guidelines that describe general principals of accessible design for the internet. Be aware, these are general principals, not absolutes, and are open to interpretation.

Today

In plain English, websites that are not accessible “enough” to people with disabilities are vulnerable to lawsuits under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) because plaintiffs who believe businesses are not accommodating disabled persons will use the courts to argue their case and seek remedies. Initially, these lawsuits were targeted towards larger properties, but smaller properties are increasingly at risk. If you own or operate a small lodging business in the US, we strongly advise you to invest some time and effort to make your online business comply with as many of the WCAG guidelines as possible. Protect yourself from potential lawsuits that can be costly and timely.

In addition to mitigating your financial exposure, having an ADA compliant website and booking engine is good business. People with disabilities, some 50 million in the US alone, account for roughly 15% of all internet users, spending $17.3 billion annually on travel. In addition, approximately 71.5 million baby boomers will be over age 65 by the year 2030 and will be demanding products, services, and environments that meet their age-related physical needs. Studies show that once people with disabilities find a business where they can shop or get services in an accessible manner, they become repeat customers. Make your website and booking engine ADA accessible, and open your doors to more customers.

Accessibility is our priority

For years, rezStream has been talking about the importance of making your property’s website ADA compliant with our website guidelines for ADA accessibility. Accessibility is a priority for us, and we always strive to provide ADA accessibility components and helpful information to our clients to guide them during this process.

Whether you choose rezStream or another third-party, you should work with an ADA website expert who can perform an audit and address problem areas to ensure you’re following a minimum of ADA guidelines. While there are self-help online testing tools, they can be difficult to manage, and you still need to implement audit recommended changes.

Since ADA compliance is subjective, striving for 100% compliance can be extremely costly and time-consuming. To get you started and give you a chance to evaluate what is reasonable to aspire to for you, we have provided some useful information below that applies to both your website and your booking engine. For additional information on ADA compliance, review the following primer for small businesses offered by the ADA.

https://www.ada.gov/regs2010/smallbusiness/smallbusprimer2010.htm

Basic website and booking engine ADA compliance

To make sure you meet basic ADA compliance, your property’s website and booking engine should:

• Provide alternative text for any non-text content, i.e. images should have “alt” text describing their content.
• Be available in HTML text-based format. Make sure any documents loaded to your website are not images or PDFs.
• Avoid hard-to-read text. It’s always best to stick to a larger, common font, that is easy to read.
• Visually offer audio. For those who are hearing impaired, audio signals should also be displayed visually.
• Be compatible with assistive web technologies such as screen readers, keyboard navigation, browser zoom, and color contrast/high-contrast modes.

For additional ADA accessibility tips, visit our Top 10 ADA Internet Tips blog.

What you can do now to protect yourself

To make sure your website and booking engine meet the necessary ADA guidelines, select a provider that offers ADA accessible websites and online reservation systems. rezStream has done this for years and continue to address accessibility in multiple ways across its ecosystem of products and services.

Within our cloud reservation software, rezStream offers the following unparalleled ADA compliance features:

• rezStream Cloud enables “alt text” for images displayed on the booking engine.  When property managers utilize this functionality and apply accurate and complete image descriptions, visually impaired visitors can use their screen readers to convert those pictures to text that describes the images in a meaningful way. For information on adding title and alt tags to images: https://support.temp.rezstream.com/hc/en-us/articles/223720688-Adding-Photos-to-RezStream-Cloud
• With rezStream Cloud a property can easily indicate which room is ADA accessible. [A screenshot of a cell phone Description automatically generated] This is accomplished in the configuration section of the PMS under unit details. For information on marking units as ADA: https://support.temp.rezstream.com/hc/en-us/articles/360017776174-Setting-up-Units
• rezStream Cloud automatically includes an ADA accessibility widget on its clients’ booking engine. This widget is visible to every user that enters the property’s booking engine and can be accessed in the lower left-hand corner of the screen. The purpose of the widget is to provide those with disabilities the tools they need to assist them in navigating the online booking experience. Thus, the widget improves compliance in multiple important areas including keyboard navigation, contrast maximization, font size options, font legibility enhancements, and text-to-audio conversion, to name a few.
• Finally, the rezStream booking engine supports complete ADA unit filtering and searching. This is accessible on both step 1 and 2 of the booking engine, where a guest can check a box to indicate if their preference is for an ADA accessible room. The booking engine will then filter the units to display those that are marked as ADA accessible at the top of the unit search results. There will be an icon denoting that room is accessible to those with disabilities. When that reservation is downloaded into the reservation software, the software will indicate to the property that the guest has specifically selected an ADA unit.  For properties without ADA units, the ADA search/filter option on the booking engine is automatically disabled so not to confuse guests.

For more information regarding online reservation system requirements for ADA compliance, visit our blog here.

Our TCMS websites also include the ADA compliance widget described above.  For example, visit this page and try it for yourself.  https://www.temp.rezstream.com/accessibility-statement.  

Our marketing team ensures clients understand online ADA issues and supports them in crafting and adding the following features to reduce the risk of a lawsuit:

• An accessibility statement outlining what ADA rooms and amenities are offered at the property. If the property is exempt from having to be compliant due to its historic nature or number of rooms, it’s important to clearly state that on the property website.
• An accessibility plug-in that will increase compliance with WCAG 2.1, ATAG 2.0, ADA, & Section 508 requirements.

Pick rezStream for your ADA needs

With an ecosystem of related online products, we understand how ADA impacts all aspects of your online business, from your website and digital marketing to your reservation software and booking engine. Let the experts at rezStream focus on making those changes and compliance updates so you can focus on your taking care of your guests.

For more information on our ADA compliant website and booking engine contact us today. We will work to find a solution that is right for you so you can better protect yourself and your business.