Refer to Accessible.org for a 10% commission on audits and other services. Take on 0% of the legal risk. There are other options which we’ll discuss, but that’s the headliner.
The website accessibility business is booming. And not just for digital accessibility companies, SEO agencies have a lot of leads coming in from current clients who are concerned with ADA website lawsuits.
Recently, we’ve seen many marketing agencies recommend overlay widgets, taking a 20% affiliate commission on sales. That was a huge mistake.
Now multiple overlay widget companies are embroiled in their own lawsuits as their customers, website owners, found out first hand that overlay widgets. They’re being sued over false and misleading messaging. And what’s a problem is that affiliates were espousing that same marketing and messaging.
As an SEO agency, yes, there is potential for a revenue increase, but it’s not all blue birds and rainbows. There’s a reason for the surge in demand for website accessibility and it’s being website owners (especially Shopify store owners) are being sued every non-holiday weekday. There are literally dozens of plaintiffs’ lawyers who now operate boutique ADA website compliance shops and sue website owners over technical accessibility issues.
If you want to operate a website accessibility division of your services, this is certainly doable, but you need to understand what you’re getting into and this isn’t for your average weekend warrior.
To illustrate, let’s say you go onto LinkedIn or Upwork and search for a web accessibility specialist. You find one in India. You hire them and you’re off to the races, right?
Maybe. But in our experience, probably not. We’ve held try outs for many contractors and the great majority of them aren’t ready to be professional accessibility auditors – and we’re talking about those with certifications: CPACC, WAS, Trusted Tester, etc.
Just because their resume looks pristine doesn’t mean they’re ready for showtime. And the problem for you, the digital marketing agency, is you won’t know it (technical accessibility expertise is difficult to evaluate if you’re new to accessibility).
As a loose analogy, imagine searching Fiverr for SEO experts. They might have 5 stars and swear up and down they’re experienced in SEO and have made so many sites rank #1, but when it comes down to real world results with a client website, they make no appreciable difference and might actually increase the risk profile by driving unnatural signals.
Anyway, the recommendation here is spending some time to learn the legal and technical side of web accessibility. So many people (not just marketers) try to rush into ADA compliance and website accessibility because they see the dollar signs and potential, but most don’t understand what they’re getting into and that lack of knowledge not only negatively affects their risk, but it negatively affects their clients.
If you return a low quality audit to a client, then they’re not going to fix all of their issues. If they get sued and some issues still exist, that comes right back to you as the audit service provider.
With all this said, here are our some things you can do to gain some website accessibility savvy:
- Learn WCAG: our WCAG course (paid), our WCAG checklist (free)
- Consult with an expert
- Watch our YouTube channel
- Sign up for The War Room (our best advice and strategy)
The more time you invest familiarizing yourself with this space, the better you’ll understand the right path forward for your agency.
Some obvious paths forward:
- Open up your own division
- Open up a separate LLC
- Refer to us
- White label our services
