FAQ: Website Accessibility

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), your winery must meet federal standards to ensure that all individuals, including those of diverse ability levels, can access your website.

While the ADA itself does not specify requirements you must follow, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) provide a single shared standard for website accessibility that meets the needs of individuals, organizations, and governments internationally.

The ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) applies only to businesses operating in the United States. However, most countries have similar accessibility legislation in place and reference the same Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.0.

As a business owner, you are ultimately responsible for ensuring your website meets ADA standards, but our partner, Allyant is available to assist and help guide you.

All the pages of your website must adhere to the guidelines. Your website as a whole is made up of two parts: customized web content pages, and transactional pages.

Examples of customized web content include:

• Your About page
• Your Visit Us page
• Your Vineyard pages
• All other general information pages

Examples of transactional pages include:

• Your shopping cart
• Wine club pages
• User account pages

If your winery has concerns about your ADA compliance (or are facing legal action), please follow these steps:

1. Contact our partner Mary Brockman at Allyant.
2. Allyant is an ADA compliance specialist agency that is familiar with the WineDirect platform and are experts in helping wineries reach and maintain ADA website compliance. 
3. Allyant will put a plan in place to help your winery respond to any legal threats, and fix website issues at the same time. They also continually monitor your website to ensure you remain in compliance. You have access to preferential pricing as a WineDirect client.