Lofty’s Commitment to Accessibility

Lofty is committed to ensuring our platform is accessible to all users. We take digital accessibility seriously and continuously update our system to align with WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards, which are widely recognized as the benchmark for digital accessibility.

While digital accessibility is an evolving landscape, our goal is to provide a platform that supports inclusive access for all potential home

Understanding ADA Requirements for Real Estate

Real estate professionals need to understand where they fit in the current regulatory landscape. Based on recent Department of Justice (DOJ) rulings, there are key distinctions between government and private entities:

· Private Businesses (Title III): Most real estate brokerages and agents fall under Title III of the ADA. Currently, there is no specific published rule with a technical standard or deadline for private businesses. However, courts increasingly use WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the benchmark in accessibility litigation, making voluntary compliance a best practice.

Government Entities (Title II): Recent rules establish strict compliance deadlines (April 2026 or 2027) for state and local government entities. While this applies to the public sector, it has raised the standard for accessibility expectations across the web.

Platform Accessibility Features

Lofty builds accessibility directly into the foundation of your website rather than relying on superficial fixes.
 

Default Website Template Features: The following technical features are automatically implemented and currently live in Lofty's default website template. This ensures that your site starts with a strong baseline for accessibility without requiring manual coding on your part.

· Semantic Markup: Added semantic markup to designate page elements, including text whose appearance conveys meaning.

· ARIA Implementation: Using ARIA landmarks and labels to identify regions of a page.

· Data Tables: Using tables with captions and headers to show tabular data properly.

· Tagging: Adding corresponding tags for all different page elements.

· Code Cleanliness: Removing unnecessary whitespace characters to streamline screen reader performance.

· Link Descriptions: Adding the title property or the aria-label property to labels to describe link purposes.

· Form Validation: Automatically detects input errors and provides correction suggestions to the user.

· Location Awareness: Information about the user's location is available.

· Enhanced Properties: Adding the titles property for iframes and the ALT property for images.

· Background Images: Displaying descriptive pictures as background images.

· Tooltips: Adding role="tooltip" for hover or focus content.

· Keyboard Operability: Scripting to guarantee keyboard operability for a site's basic functions.

· Focus Management: Ensuring keyboard focus can move freely on the web page.

· Accessible Naming: Providing accessible names for forms, buttons, tags, and links.

· Component Transparency: Disclosing information about components.

· Status Messages: Announcing status messages for screen reader users.

Native Compliance vs. Widgets We frequently receive requests for "accessibility icons" or "widgets." Currently, the Lofty CMS does not include a built-in accessibility widget because native accessibility (like the features listed above) is superior to "overlays." Accessibility experts often criticize overlays for creating a false sense of security while failing to resolve underlying structural issues.

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Your Responsibility: Best Practices for Content

While Lofty provides the technical framework, the content you upload must also be accessible. Customizations can impact your compliance score. Please follow these best practices to maintain a high standard of accessibility:

· Use Alt Text: Always add descriptive alternative text to any images you upload to your website.

· Ensure Color Contrast: When customizing your theme, use sufficient color contrast between text and background colors to ensure readability.

· Structure Content: Use proper heading hierarchy (H1, H2, H3) to organize content logically. Do not just bold text to look like a header; use the correct heading tags.

· Provide Video Captions: Add captions to any video content embedded on your website.

Verification & Third-Party Tools

We encourage clients to verify their own website's accessibility or use additional tools if they prefer visible compliance badges.

How to Verify Accessibility: You can experience your website the way assistive technology users do by using the following tools:

• Screen Reader Plugins: Install browser extensions (such as the Screen Reader for Chrome) to test how your content is read aloud.
• Native Screen Readers: Use built-in tools like VoiceOver (Mac) or Narrator (Windows).

Third-Party Accessibility Widgets: If you prefer to add a visible accessibility menu or icon to your site, the Lofty CMS supports the integration of third-party tools via our "Custom Code" feature. Popular options used by real estate professionals include: 

• AccessiBe (https://accessibe.com/ ) 
• UserWay (https://userway.org/)

Note: These are third-party services. Clients are responsible for any associated costs and for verifying that the tool meets their specific compliance needs.

Audit Support

If you receive a third-party accessibility audit report, please know that many automated tests catch only about 30% of potential issues and may produce false positives.

Lofty is here to help. If you have specific findings from an audit:

1. Contact Support: Send the report to our team.
2. Review: We will review the findings to identify which items can be addressed through platform updates versus content adjustments you can make

We are dedicated to monitoring regulatory developments to ensure your website remains inclusive and compliant.

Questions?

If you have any questions regarding this topic or any others, please reach out to our Support Team via email at <support@lofty.com>, by phone at 1 (855) 981-7557, or by chat with us through your Lofty CRM.

Related terms: accessibility, ADA compliance, WCAG