Ensuring your website is accessible to all is not just advantageous for reaching a broader customer base. You can also gain tax benefits from having an accessible website. When you invest in an accessible website, you could receive a tax credit of up to $5,000. This credit is meant to cover half of the eligible expenses (up to $10,250) you incurred to improve and adapt your businesses’ website and business itself for Americans with disabilities. This is The Disabled Access Tax Credit.
Is My Business Eligible?
Not all businesses are eligible for this tax credit. Section 44 of the IRS Code allows businesses with a total annual revenue of less than $1,000,000 (from the previous tax year) or businesses with 30 or less full-time employees to be eligible to apply for this tax credit.
What is an ADA Accessible Website?
Adapting your current website or creating a new one that is ADA accessible is not necessarily an easy task. Ensuring your business and building can then assist anyone with varying disabilities can be even harder. The government acknowledges the challenges and is looking to help you make your website and business more accommodating to anyone who needs it. While they can’t change your website or property for you, they can help alleviate the financial costs you incur to do so.
The ADA has guidelines in place for an ADA accessible website.
A few tips are to:
- Utilize large print text
- Avoid flashing graphics
- Include a description or caption for each graphic that can be read aloud
- Use easy to read fonts and lighting/backgrounds
- Be sure it is user friendly
- Use standard HTML tags that work with assistive reader systems
- Make your site completely usable with a keyboard alone
Additional tax deductions may be available.
Taking Next Steps
If you need any help making your website more accessible, we can certainly assist. Whether applying changes manually or installing a helpful tool like Accessibe to cut down on development costs, we can help your website meet ADA guidelines
