Following up on my previous post about the relationship between technology and autism services, I want to revisit my discussion with Daryn Harpaz, an ADA website accessibility and compliance consultant and CEO of ZenythGroup. During this extraordinary time of sheltering in place due to COVID-19 , it is particularly pertinent to focus on the accessibility of technology, which is powering all of our online interactions.

More than ever, the services available on websites must be accessible to everyone, including those with disabilities, now that online platforms are our primary method of communication and commerce.

Daryn and I discussed the current state of affairs with respect to online accessibility issues for disabled individuals, which I have noted as merely the tip of the iceberg in the urgent question of inclusivity in the Internet age.

You can read Part 1 of my review of that discussion in which Daryn revealed that it does not appear that businesses generally have prioritized accessibility of their websites, and that has cost them in terms of brand loyalty, sales and litigation. On the Federal level, a lawsuit is filed every hour against businesses whose services on the web are inaccessible to the disability community.

“We’re looking at 15% of the world’s population with a disability – that’s over a billion people, of which 61 million are in America,” Daryn notes. This is a massive cohort to write off. Excluding those with age-related issues, individuals with disabilities purchase half-a-trillion dollars in goods and services annually. They are also fiercely brand loyal to businesses that cater to their needs, and now businesses are finding that they are also willing to use the courts for relief. Losing their support is a colossal missed opportunity and—in those cases in which legal action is involved—can be very expensive to defend.

Target discovered the pain of ignoring the accessibility issue when it paid an estimated $10 million in fees and remediation to settle a lawsuit filed by a prospective customer who could not navigate its e-commerce platform. That says nothing of the loss of brand equity the company suffered, particularly in the disability community.

The business imperative tends to spur businesspeople to act, and so Daryn reminds them that, “more than 85% of websites that are visited do not provide an inclusive experience. And we know that over 80% of people with disabilities say that they would return to a website if it was accessible and they would shop more often and support that brand.”

ZenythGroup offers businesses critical services to help them achieve full digital accessibility and remain compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). After manually auditing websites and online platforms by using people with disabilities to provide real-world testing, the firm provides corrective measures to meet WCAG best-practice standards. Thereafter, he says, compliance is a critical, ongoing need because websites are fluid and require continual monitoring.

Ultimately, this is a problem not of technology, but of the heart. Here’s how Daryn put it:

“If you are, as a business, catering to society, regardless of ability, you’re going to succeed as a company. And if a business owner could meet, engage or otherwise interact with the disability community, I believe that they would see the human aspects of this and want to do better. It shouldn’t have to be under the requirements of a lawsuit or the threat of penalties and fees to want to do better. Instead, we should be enabling our community from a social aspect to be integrated and inclusive. And I think that says a lot about where we need to move in the direction of disabilities in general.”

It’s worth mentioning that a myriad of accessibility widgets and overlay solutions are now available on the Internet for download and claim to offer an easy-fix. However, being that these widgets are automated, they miss the majority of WCAG issues and are often confusing and challenging for people with disabilities to interact with.

While overlay solutions can play an initial role in providing a short-term patch, this band aid approach will only deliver minimal accessibility. Core WCAG issues must be resolved via manual testing, code remediation and continuous accessibility best-practices.

Daryn reminds organizations to work with a reputable accessibility company that can ensure your organization achieves and maintains ADA compliance with hands-on feedback from the disability community, ongoing manual testing, and a mature process that mitigates risk.

Article written for Forbes.com.