Author: Ryan Needle

  • Is your website ADA Compliant?

    Is your website ADA Compliant?

    An Abrupt Change in ADA Compliance Renders your Practice Vulnerable

    With the recent changes in Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance opening up the floodgates for litigation, it is important now more than ever to understand what changes occurred, and how you can protect your firm from the rising tide of lawsuits.

    Can the sight impaired access your site? Always keep your users in mind.

    On January 15, 2019, the initial ruling made in the soon-to-be-landmark case Robles v. Domino’s Pizza, Inc, was reversed, now stating that,

    “Even though customers primarily accessed the website and app away from Domino’s physical restaurants, the panel stated that the ADA applies to the services of a public accommodation, not services in a place of public accommodation. The panel stated that the website and app connected customers to the goods and services of Domino’s physical restaurants.”

    This means that websites and apps connected to a service who were initially governed by ADA Title I—which dealt with accessibility during the employment process—are now also governed by ADA Title III, which,

    “prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability by covered public accommodations and requires places of public accommodation* and commercial facilities to be designed, constructed, and altered in compliance with the accessibility standards established by this part.”

    Already, this new ruling has proved problematic to many, many high-profile businesses and entities, including Target.com, Netflix, Major League Baseball, and even colleges such as Harvard University. It is imperative for lawyers to understand this ruling, and to quickly have their websites in compliance with Title III accessibility requirements** lest their firms face rapidly approaching litigation.

    Accessibility solutions for your site

    Accessibility

    We’ve solved accessibility issues for your website—and it’s part of our web solutions.

    So how can you protect your firm?

    Domino’s Pizza faces a very real dilemma, claiming that retooling their websites to comply to ADA Title III could cost up to 3 million per website, due to their pizza-tracking app being coded in a very ridged, unconventional way. This is why it is important to build your website in a way that either already complies, or at the very least, find a solution that converts your website’s functionality without breaking everything in the process.

    Userway is one such tool that we highly recommend for it’s ability to save your time, money, and greatly streamlines your website. How does it work? You may have noticed the blue, circular symbol in the top right corner of the page. Userway is a widget that connects to supported platforms, like Shopify or WordPress, and enables accessibility controls, such as text-to-speech, text enlargement, tooltips, keyboard navigation, keyword highlights, high contrast, and many other functionalities.

    What makes Userway so unique—and the reason we recommend it above all other solutions—is that it’s all self-contained, it provides these functions without requiring your website’s code to be rewritten. Many companies and firms facing litigation are having to rebuild their websites, apps, and various online tools entirely from scratch, but through Userway, your firm’s website can increase Title III compliance in mere moments.

    The best thing to do right is is to of course, learn all you can about ADA Title III compliance, follow it, as it is bound to change numerous times by the beginning of next year as a new standard is created. Many lawyers are already speaking out through Webinars, presentations, and speaking events, and it’s imperative now more than ever to attend these. As until a legal standard is established, your firm could be in danger.

    Reference

    * “Places of Public Accommodation” in this case does include “offices of an accountant or lawyer, and insurance offices”

    ** A general overview of standardized requirements by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), can be found here.

  • Promoting your Practice with Content

    Promoting your Practice with Content

    A Case Study in Collaboration

    Here’s an example of how PracticeDev promotes your work. We built the site that brought this timely book to market, for notable Elder Law attorneys. We helped them market it with articles like this one, promoted on their site, others, via social media and through their email marketing channels.

    Estate Planning in the Trump Era

    The world of Estate Planning is a complex one. Nuances between trusts, wills, powers of attorney, health care directives, gifts, and you name it, all come together to draft how a client’s assets will be managed or passed down.

    It’s a field that experiences radical shifts in protocol and methodology as we approach the beginning of a new legal era. And with President Trump’s passing of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the entire community of Estate Planners now find themselves having to quickly and efficiently rework their craft. But in this flurry of activity and media attention, how does one get their message heard, above all the noise?

    Just mere days after the Act was finalized, three titans of the Estate Planning community—Martin Shenkman, Jonathan Blattmachr, and Joy Matak—came together and went straight into overdrive, penning the cornerstone of what Estate Planners now reference daily, “Estate Planning: Under the 2017 Tax Reconciliation Act“.

    Three leading voices in Estate Planning

    Estate PlanningA Co-Founder of InterActive Legal and renowned across America as a pillar in the Estate Planning community, Jonathan Blattmachr has over 35 years of experience in trust and estate taxation. He’s often cited as one of the country’s most creative estate planners.

    As an author of more than 43 books and over 1,000 articles, Martin Shenkman has risen to be one of the most influential estate planners of our generation, with his lexicon of expertise paving the way for the Estate Planning community’s march forward.

    And with over 20 years of experience as a highly flexible Wealth Transfer Strategist, Joy Matak brings her prolific background of tax services and succession planning to families all across the country.

    But there was a problem: How to deliver this wealth of information to the public, in time for the 2018 Heckerling Institute Expo, the largest conference for estate planning in the world.

    Running strong for over 53 years, Heckerling provides an unparalleled wealth of timely information through speakers, events, press conferences, and hands-on guidance to the ins and outs of Estate Planning.

    [ Heckerling was the event for this book.  We couldn’t miss this opportunity to get this information to our industry. ]

    To market the book, we built an ecommerce site—in just one week. We created a fully-functional webstore from which to sell and market their book—just in time for Heckerling.

    Estate Planning

    InterActive Legal is the place where collaboration in this industry takes place. And their marketing partner, Longbow  (PracticeDev) helped them deliver this site.

    One of the biggest reasons why this lightning-fast campaign came together was our expertise in the ecommerce platform, Shopify.

    Shopify is a newer platform that is sweeping the world by storm. Built for simplicity and efficiency, much like WordPress—and with functions such as an integrated webstore, analytics, and automated price and ordering controls, we were able to quickly build and launch the store.

    Building the site was only the first step

    After the site went live, our companies sprang into action. Together, all our partners launched a whirlwind marketing campaign, directly targeting the audience we needed to reach.

    Shenkman Law, Peak Trust Co., InterActive Legal, made the book a focus of their Heckerling outreach. And with Shopify’s tools, we were able to promote, manage, and monitor the sale of the book, hassle-free. All this in addition to our mutual presence at Heckerling.

    “We were only able to make this happen—in time for Heckerling—because of Longbow’s experience with us, our partners and with the platform.” Said Matt Tove, Director of Sales and Marketing for InterActive Legal. “Their focus and dedication made this happen. “

    InterActive Legal continues to arm estate planning leaders with current, relevant and timely information. Getting this book into our subscribers’ hands was mission critical for our team at Heckerling.

    The timeliness of the material cannot be understated. Jonathan Blattmachr, Marty Shenkman and Joy Matak essentially spent their Christmas holiday break to research, write and edit this book.

    “It all came together so quickly,” Jonathan Blattmachr relayed. “We knew the legislation this would send shockwaves through the estate planning world and had to act, and Longbow delivered beyond our wildest expectations.”

    “We’re amazed that Longbow was able to create this initiative so quickly.” Martin Shenkman told us. “They went from a concept to working store in a week. We can’t thank them enough”.

    The practice of Estate Planning is still moving and evolving, and as it shifts from the Baby Boomer generation, it will continue to rapidly change. Thus, it is imperative that you and your firm are able to not only keep up with the changes, but, through effective marketing, to raise your voice above your competitors.

    Longbow and its partners are at the leading edge of digital marketing. Come see how we can position you to thrive though this period of change and reach the next generation of clients.

    EstatePlanning2018.com was a promotional site and is no longer available.

    Visit InterActiveLegal.com and see how they empower professionals and attorney practices concerned with Estate Planning, Elder Law and Retirements Benefits Planning.

    Longbow is a boutique marketing agency, focused on Brand, Content and Digital.

    PracticeDev is a Longbow venture,  focused on web and digital marketing, specifically to meet the needs of legal practices.