In the 21st century, we spend much of our lives online. However, while browsing websites, performing online searches or using mobile apps is a simple and easy process for most people, those who have disabilities often struggle to navigate the internet. Because of this, advocates for the disabled have worked to ensure that websites can be used by everyone, and in fact, some companies have even faced lawsuits for failing to provide accessible websites. By following accessibility guidelines during the website design process, law firms can avoid these issues and ensure that they can connect with potential clients with disabilities.

What Are Accessibility Guidelines?

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is the law that is most often used in cases related to website accessibility. Under the ADA, people with disabilities cannot be discriminated against in places of “public accommodation.” This is the basis for many of the lawsuits regarding website accessibility, since courts have found that websites fall into the category of places of public accommodation.

The ADA does not list technical standards for what makes a website accessible, but in many cases, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are used to determine whether a site can be used by those with disabilities. These guidelines were created by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), and they are regularly updated based on changes in technology, design trends, and any other issues that can affect the way people with and without disabilities use websites and digital technologies.

If you are like most Americans, you have come to rely on the internet for a significant portion of your day’s news, information, and entertainment. Your ability to perform your job and promote your company may even be reliant on a global connection. When something happens that disrupts your connection to the digital world, the results can be more than just inconvenient. When something happens that disrupts everyone’s connection, the problems get even bigger.

Denial of Service Attack

Early last Friday morning, Americans on the East Coast woke up to find that they could not access popular websites, including Reddit, Twitter, Netflix, PayPal, and even Amazon. Users scrambled to check their internet connection and the status of their service provider, but the problem was not with individual households or broadband services. Instead, experts and government officials believe that the issues were a result of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack orchestrated by hackers. There are even indications that similar, smaller-scale attacks using the same malware are continuing to affect seemingly random targets.

You may have one of the best websites in the industry. It could be full of visually stunning elements, interactive menus, and useful information for prospective clients. Your site could even be built for viewing on any size screen, offering an unmatched user experience. The greatest website on the internet, however, is virtually worthless if nobody ever visits it. The reality is that very few potential clients are going to take the time to type out your site’s Uniform Resource Identifier, or URL—more commonly referred to as your web address. Instead, traffic to your site depends on your ability to be seen in search engine results, which, in turn, is driven by search engine optimization, or SEO. There are many factors that go into effective SEO, but a new study suggests that optimization help may be available from a somewhat surprising source.

Top-Level Domains

Around the time Google was first launched, entrepreneurs and business speculators saw massive opportunity in tech-related companies and internet-based startups. The push, however, was relatively short-lived and became known as the “dot-com” bubble, which burst in about 2000. The “dot-com” descriptor came from the most common domain throughout the world. Check out the address bar in your browser right now and you will see an address containing that domain: www.ovclawyermarkting.com. While .com is by far the most popular, there are countless domains that could be used for your site.

Chicago-based attorney and law firm marketing company OVC, INC. announces the launch of the Illinois Child Support Calculator app and website.

OVC, INC. Lawyer Marketing is pleased to announce the launch of the Illinois Child Support Calculator app and accompanying website. The calculator is currently available on Google Play for Android devices and is planned to be released in the Apple App Store.

The Illinois Child Support Calculator tool allows divorcing parents the ability to estimate their child support obligations. The calculator offers important information regarding Illinois child support including the statutory guidelines and the determination of net income. The amount of child support a court orders for any particular legal case may be different from the calculator’s estimation.

In executive offices and conferences around the country, business owners and decision-makers are developing their objectives for 2016. It is probably happening in your own office as well. You and your team have likely given a great deal of thought to ways that your firm can improve in the coming year: attracting more clients, increasing revenues, and solidifying your brand. What you may be overlooking, however, is the importance of your company’s website in meeting those goals. For many businesses, their websites are uninteresting, static displays of relatively mundane information, and, once launched, are quickly forgotten about as a useful business tool. If updating your website hasn’t appeared on your company’s list of objectives for a couple years, now is the time to change that.

Increasing Reliance on Web Technology

Are you aware that four out of five consumers begin their purchasing journey with an online search? Even if they do not make a purchase over the Internet, the World Wide Web has become the primary source of information for the modern buyer. Nearly 70 percent seek out online reviews regarding specific products and services before making a decision. When you allow your website to become stale and boring, prospective customers are unlikely to even give you a second thought before moving on to another company that seemingly has more to offer.