<p><b>While striving to elevate consciousness around diversity and inclusion, many businesses have yet to address the online accessibility needs of one overlooked constituency — people with disabilities.</b></p>

<p>The internet is now the primary medium of interaction between businesses and customers. However, many businesses have discovered that they have ignored one critical demographic for far too long — people with disabilities (PWDs). A steady rise in lawsuits under the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans\_with\_Disabilities\_Act\_of\_1990" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Americans with Disabilities Act</a> (ADA), and the associated risks of not complying with the <a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Web Content Accessibility Guidelines</a> (WCAG), has made accessibility business-critical.</p> <h4>Four must-haves for website accessibility remediation:</h4> <ul> <li>Understand the extent of remediation to be undertaken and identify risks of inaction<br> <br> </li> <li>Bring all stakeholders on-board before beginning remediation<br> <br> </li> <li>Test new framework for perceivability, operability, understandability and robustness before going live<br> <br> </li> <li>Ensure continuous accessibility by documenting best practices, performing regular audits and creating awareness</li> </ul>

<p><span class="text-regular-italic"><i><br> For more, visit the </i><a href="/content/cognizant-dot-com/us/en/about-cognizant/diversity-and-inclusion.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><i>Diversity and Inclusion</i></a><i>&nbsp;section of our website or </i><a href="/content/cognizant-dot-com/us/en/about-cognizant/contact-us.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><i>contact us</i></a><i>. To learn more about disability inclusion, visit </i><a href="https://www.thevaluable500.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><i>The Valuable 500</i></a><i>.</i></span></p>