6 minute read
A Secret Welcome Sign, Really?
Kerry K. Carney, DDS, CDE
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The whole point of a “Welcome” sign is that it is welcoming. It is a friendly invitation to a gladly received guest.
But if everyone cannot see and read the Welcome sign, then it is kind of a secret Welcome sign. What if only very tall people can read the sign because it is mounted too high? What if you have to know a combination to a lock before you can open a door and read the sign? Instead of inviting engagement, it becomes obscure at best and a barrier at worst. Like an invitation written in invisible ink, a secret Welcome sign is not an effective Welcome sign.
A well-designed dental practice website is a Welcome sign. It is an open portal to an office. It is an invitation to meet the staff and providers. It welcomes potential patients to a dental care treatment experience that surpasses expectations and conveys a dedication to provide consistently excellent care.
Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (AwDA) “prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities by businesses open to the public.” Dental offices are subsumed under hospitals and medical offices in the list of public accommodations that includes retail stores and other sales or retail establishments, banks, hotels, inns and motels, food and drink establishments and auditoriums, theaters and sports arenas. “A website with inaccessible features can limit the ability of people with disabilities to access a public accommodation’s goods, services and privileges.”
Yes, this is another requirement that dentists have to deal with. Yes, governmental regulations are not why we went into dentistry. Yes, this is one more distraction from providing oral health care to our patients. No, it is not an unreasonable request.
It only takes one debilitating accident to open the eyes of an able-bodied person to the unnecessary hurdles that someone with a disability faces daily, hourly.
One day in 1999, I was watching a softball team we were sponsoring at a tournament in our small town. I stepped off a bench, into a hole and dislocated my foot. There were too many witnesses to somehow eradicate, so in tremendous embarrassment, I was taken to the hospital for emergency care. Eight hours later, I was delivered to my home with a full foot and leg cast along with a pair of crutches that I would enjoy for six weeks.
Suddenly, accessibility had a new and very personal meaning for me. Many folks have found themselves in similar circumstances. When you cannot walk without crutches, stairs are your enemy, turnstiles are impossible. Elevation changes in the flooring materials are stymying. Just maneuvering around the house takes detailed planning. Carrying something as simple as a glass of water from one room to another becomes a tactical exercise.
How people interact with you changes. If you are in a wheelchair, able-bodied folks tend to talk to your able-bodied companion rather than you. But the most disconcerting effect is how it can challenge your selfconfidence. The few times that we dined out, I would have to store my crutches somewhere out of the way so as not to create a traffic hazard. When that was done, I found the thought of being unable to walk, unable to evacuate in the case of an emergency, very distressing.
When I went to pick up a disabled parking permit, I was overcome by the idea that some thief would spot me as an easy mark, grab my wallet and phone and leave me in the DMV parking lot scrabbling like a turtle on its back trying to get up. I had no idea just how much of my self-confidence relied on my ability to stand and easily locomote.
The point is, there is nothing like an injury to heighten ones awareness of all the casual, thoughtless ways we make everyday life inaccessible to people with disabilities.
The word “inaccessible” usually relates to the inability to get somewhere. When one is talking about the inability to access data, there is a tendency to use the word “unaccessible.” The problem with many websites is that the data they provide is unaccessible to those with certain disabilities. The AwDA guidelines are an attempt to rectify that.
In the case of our office websites, there are two primary reasons to try to make them accessible to people with disabilities. The first: It is the right thing to do. Everyone needs oral health care, and it is only right to provide a Welcome sign that is easily accessible to all. The second: Your office can be at risk of litigation if your practice website is not accessible for the disabled person seeking information about your services.
When you are using crutches, the hurdles to perambulation are easily recognized. But recognizing the hurdles to accessing the information on your website may not be so easy. The Department of Justice has provided guidance describing barriers to access and suggesting ways to overcome those barriers. 1 But if you are not a DIY website builder, you may want to check with your website builder/host to make sure your site is in compliance. When I checked with ours, he was surprised to find the requirements had changed since he had reviewed them a few years ago.
When morals and ethics are not enough motivation to do the right thing, risk aversion and litigation may be the final motivator. An increasing number of law suits have been successfully filed against large and small entities with regard to noncompliant websites.
“According to claims representatives at The Dentists Insurance Company, most claims that TDIC handles are referred to as first-notice lawsuits. ‘Plaintiffs are targeting dental offices for profit, not because they have any intention of becoming patients, so they’re not incentivized to give the office an opportunity to address the accessibility issue.’”
In other words, the potential for significant payments in an accessibility lawsuit incentivizes widespread litigation unrelated to the intent of the guidelines.
“Minimum damages for a first offense are $4,000 or $4,500 and can multiply for every site revisit — as much as $25,000 to $30,000 in legal fees or mediation if not covered by a practice’s dental business liability insurer.”
Such a risk of monetary penalties is highly motivating.
If your website has any of the following, you may have inadvertently thrown up a barrier: Poor color contrast, use of color alone to give information, lack of text alternatives on images, no captions on videos, unaccessible online forms or lack of keyboard navigation. The information you wanted to broadcast may be secret and inaccessible to those who are in some way challenged.
Add checking your website accessibility to your list of things to do and get it done. It might save you money and aggravation. Plus, it’s the right thing to do. And a secret Welcome sign is not very welcoming.
