Are Overlays the “Easier” Path to Accessibility?

In short, no. Digital accessibility overlays (aka add-ons or widgets) often promise more than they deliver, and they bring along a whole lot of baggage in the process. Overlays offer a cheaper, quick-fix approach to digital accessibility that doesn’t solve the problem, protect your business, grow your consumer base, or generally get the job done. Let’s take a look. 

What are overlays?

Most websites contend with multiple types, varieties, and degrees of accessibility barriers. This is because accessibility as an end goal was not formally built into software and website design until more recently, and there is still a tremendous lag in incorporating best practices on a forward-looking basis. This means that, statistically, approximately only 2% of websites are fully accessible. Or, put another way, an estimated 98% of websites are not fully accessible.

We’re in a period of an accessibility lag between the recognition that we need to do better in designing and implementing websites that are fully accessible and actually doing that. In this context, overlays seemingly offer a quick-fix-style solution. Just as the name suggests, overlays are digital accessibility solutions that attempt to fix limited problems by using algorithms to scan a website and to identify and fix accessibility barriers by laying new code over existing code in a technologically superficial way. They are meant to avoid making actual changes to the website’s foundational code. For instance, an overlay might purport to fix limited visibility barriers by layering on code that enlarges text, or that provides alt-text for images on the website. 

The pro of this type of “quick-fix” solution is that it promises to be the cheapest and fastest way to add a layer of accessibility to an existing website. Which makes sense, since it’s an attempt to scale digital accessibility to the masses. So, are there cons? Most definitely.

So, what’s the problem with overlays? 

There are three main cons of using overlays in an attempt to fix digital accessibility problems. 

Overlays are limited in scope. This means that if your website has multiple accessibility barriers (which 98% of websites do!), the use of overlays is the equivalent of just putting bandaids on each problem, one problem at a time. Through demonstrated performance, this approach has proven to be unreliable, incomplete, and non-comprehensive. 

Overlays cause new problems. The use of additional code to scan, interact with, and change the appearance or engagement of various aspects of a website can actually make the use of assistive technologies harder, more burdensome, or impossible. Since the overlay code is not seamlessly incorporated into the fabric of the website but rather surface level and clunky, it can clash with other technologies, code, etc.

In addition, overlays pose a direct privacy problem for visitors using other assistive technologies on their devices. For instance, some overlays work by first determining whether a visitor is using assistive technologies, then identifying what those technologies are, then making changes to the website interface for temporary engagement, and finally, depositing cookies on the visitor’s browser for tracking and use across other websites using similar overlays. This privacy problem will need to be disclosed in your privacy policy, and many visitors with a disability are justifiably uncomfortable with the fact that their disability is known by every website they visit that uses a certain type of overlay. 

Overlays do not solve your compliance problem. The whole point of overlays is to offer a quick-fix solution to the very real problem of websites riddled with accessibility barriers.

They’re supposed to do this by: 

  •  Making your website fully functional, navigable, and useable for blind and low-vision visitors. 

  •  Bringing your website into ADA compliance to avoid being targeted in the onslaught of lawsuits and regulatory fines, which are increasing exponentially year over year. 

Yet, the professional consensus, based on years of real-world results, is that overlays are not an effective and comprehensive solution to either of these problems. They are the equivalent of accessibility window-dressing or sweeping your accessibility problems under the rug.

The tech community at large, including software designers, user experience professionals, and accessibility experts, have all found that these overlays are inadequate and unreliable. For instance, using superficial code to artificially enlarge text or add alt-text to images does not address the multitude of other formatting and design flaws that make navigation and usability challenging or impossible for blind or low-vision visitors. This includes visitors already using available assistive technologies. This is because digital accessibility barriers are not limited to a few simplified concepts like larger fonts.

Digital accessibility is about practical useability. Websites that are functionally inaccessible have foundational design flaws. Larger print is fantastic for low-vision visitors, but if the website itself is designed in such a way that it’s unnavigable or visitors get easily bounced to other sites or the useability through-line from homepage to product engagement to check out is disruptive, no amount of overlays that make the font larger are going to fix the problem.

Plus, typically, the solutions offered by overlays are to accessibility barriers that are already manageable from the user's point of reference. For instance, an overlay that enlarges font across all text on a website is likely not even doing anything for low-vision visitors, who are almost certainly already using enlarged text features.

Is There an Overlay Alternative?

Yes, and this is what we’ve built our business on. The alternative to using overlays is using the best tech-based auditing tools in combination with professional insights from accessibility specialists and hands-on authentication and feedback through manual review by blind and low-vision users. 

At AllyADA, our approach to digital accessibility is comprehensive because we don’t just send algorithms out to review, patch, and plug existing problems. We still use algorithms, of course, but only as one part of our auditing process. And when our algorithms scan across the pages of your website, they don’t just patch and plug problems. We have a tech team comprised of CPACC-certified accessibility experts who work with the data supplied by the algorithms to build a complete perspective on the scope of accessibility barriers. Then, we have blind and low-vision users perform a manual test to identify hidden barriers.  

The truth is that every single digital accessibility company knows that using purely tech-based reviews does not identify all of the barriers to website functionality or satisfy ADA-compliance standards and that using a process that incorporates manual review does. They just choose not to employ manual reviews because they’re in the business of selling. We’re in the business of solving. 

Does Achieving ADA-Compliance Actually Matter?

Yes- it really does. First, there’s the very human-centered fact that digital accessibility, as regulated to the ADA-standard, means inclusivity, independence, and equity for the nearly 12% of the American adult population that is blind or low-vision. This is not a by-product; it’s the goal!  

Second, and of equal importance to YOU, is that achieving this critical benchmark secures an assortment of remarkable business benefits.

Businesses that invest in their own ADA-compliant digital accessibility get a boost in SEO rankings, greater brand reach, more loyal customers, lucrative tax breaks, and risk mitigation (by avoiding hefty payout from lawsuits and regulatory fines).

Full-service digital auditing is the best in the industry for a very good reason. While it’s not quite as easy or inexpensive as downloading and installing a plug-in, it actually works to fix the problems…and bring the benefits! 

As a business owner, organizational decision-maker, or corporate CFO, you are well aware that dollars spent to invest in, enhance, and protect your business in some capacity are not all the same. The calculation of any investment cost must include an analysis of factors like quality, efficacy, and risk mitigation, to name a few. Otherwise, simply selecting the cheapest option upfront means potentially leading your company into a proverbial money pit in the long run. British poet John Ruskin famously offered an artful summary of this principle when he said, “There is hardly anything in the world that cannot be made a little worse and sold a little cheaper, and those who consider price alone are that man’s lawful prey.”

We Don’t Expect You to Just Take Our Word For It

Much of the information included in this article can be found in the overlay factsheet, a published open letter addressing the use of overlays. The overlay factsheet is a thoughtful counterpoint to the use of overlays that has been signed by nearly 1,000 signatories from around the world, representing many of the best minds in the digital accessibility realm, with a wide breadth of interests and expertise. 

“In short, the list of signatories below are people who are experts in this field & have dedicated their professional careers to the improvement of accessibility or are end users with disabilities (or both). Discounting the names listed below as "competitors" is both inaccurate and misses the point: overlays are not an effective means of ensuring accessibility - a point on which all of the people below agree.”

So don’t just take our word for it; check out the factsheet, review the stunning list of signatories, and decide for yourself. 

But AllyADA is a Direct Competitor

Yes! We are competitors of those producing and selling overlays rather than comprehensive digital accessibility solutions. But we’re not just competitors; we’re also fundamentally opposed to what they do, which is why we do what we do. 

We center blind and low-vision users as an integral part of the auditing process because (1) we know it is the only way to produce outcomes that meet the needs of blind and low-vision users, (2) we know it is the only way to produce outcomes that meet the regulatory needs of businesses and provide the business benefits that naturally flow from a truly accessible website, and (3) we are part of the community of families nationwide who have been directly impacted by visual disabilities. We understand the problem and how to fix it because we are business owners who understand the needs of businesses, and we are blind and low-vision end users who understand the needs of blind and low-vision consumers.

Find out more today!