How to Comply with ADA Website Standards
Contents
There’s a decent chance you’ve heard of the terms “website accessibility” and “ADA website compliance” because they’re being thrown about in the internet business sector more and more.
But many individuals are still unaware of what ADA website compliance actually entails or how it may affect a company.
I’ll make sense of all the misunderstandings, provide you with a step-by-step manual on how to ensure that your website is ADA compliant, and explain why it matters.
The Meaning of ADA Website Compliance
The Americans with Disabilities Act, which was enacted in 1990, is referred to as the “ADA.” It was modified in 2009 to clarify which businesses must abide by ADA rules and to broaden the category of disabilities.
People with disabilities now have fair and equal access to housing, employment, transit, and other facets of daily life thanks to the law.
Access to online services is part of that, but there is some ambiguity around which websites must be ADA compliant because they weren’t as common when the law was passed.
What Exactly Does ADA Website Compliance Mean?
The short answer is that ADA website compliance ensures that people with disabilities may access your site.
By enabling access to online material, such as blog posts, videos, and online services, for users who use screen readers or keyboard-only access, websites can really be said to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act Standards for Accessible Design. On how to achieve that, more later.
Who Must Comply with ADA Website Requirements?
All companies are not obligated to adhere to ADA website compliance standards. Those needed to do this are:
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Local and state governments
private companies with more than 15 employees
charities and nonprofits with more than 15 staff
Businesses that depend on or profit from the public (basically, any place the public enters regularly)
But even if your company isn’t on that list, compliance is still something you need to be concerned about.
Making sure that everyone gets fair and equal access to your website should be your aim. After all, having a larger audience is always beneficial and might even win you some favor with the general public!
Guidelines for Accessible Web Content
Compliance is not an easy task. It’s difficult, it’s not necessary, and nobody else is doing it, right? Why then bother?
Unfortunately, there aren’t any plug-and-play apps or services that instantly make you compliant. If only everything were that simple.
Keep in mind that while compliance is a process, it is not impossible. What you should know is as follows.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), created by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), serve as a benchmark for businesses’ websites.
The WCAG concluded that a website must be the following in order to be compliant:
Perceivable \Operable
Understandable \Robust
But what does that actually mean?
Perceivable
No part of a perceivable website is restricted to one sense, such as vision or sight, making it simple to access and analyze.
That entails making use of elements like the alt text for photos. In a way that screen readers can comprehend, this text describes what’s in an image.
Additionally, you should offer alternate methods of consuming content, such as webinars, videos, and transcripts for podcasts and other audio content.
Additionally, since many websites employ faulty automatic text, you should make sure your videos have proper closed captioned.
Using audio descriptions on videos, which describe what’s happening in a video during pauses, is an option if you want to take it a step further, but it takes time and isn’t required by law. Simply put, it’s a good gesture.
Operable
Your website must be functional in order for users to traverse it without missing anything.
Each page is clearly titled, the site should be usable with a keyboard or mouse, and it doesn’t automatically scroll or have a timer for usability. Additionally, it must be simple for adaptive technologies like touchscreens and screen readers to operate.
Additionally, make sure your website doesn’t set off any physical triggers (such as using a strobe-light that could cause migraines or seizures).
Understandable
Users can recognize the language and read the content with ease on a website if it is clearly understood.
Without spending a lot of time getting to know the layout, they ought to be able to comprehend and anticipate it. For instance, the location of the search bar on each page should be the same.
Additionally, it implies that all forms provide helpful validation errors and input assistance that clearly outlines what the form asks for.
Robust
Last but not least, a robust website is compatible with all browsers, assistive technologies, and other methods of accessing web material. Your website needs to adapt as technology does.
For instance, your website is not robust if it can only be accessed on a desktop using Internet Explorer or if a screen reader cannot understand it.
All users can browse websites that comply with these requirements, making them ADA compliant.
Why Is ADA Compliance Important for My Website?
Making your website ADA compliant is difficult and may appear to be a waste of resources, especially for companies who are not legally compelled to do so.
It takes time, effort, and money to redesign your website.
Are there any advantages, though? Yes, there are—and there might be more than you realize.
A legal issue exists.
Maintaining an inaccessible website doesn’t merely reduce the number of visitors you might get. There are further repercussions despite the fact that you are excluding roughly 19 percent of the population.
The possibility of being sued is one of the most financially catastrophic effects.
After being sued, Beyonce, Winn Dixie, and numerous other companies had to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to update their websites; this doesn’t account for the expense of legal counsel, settlements, or the revenue lost as a result of angry customers.
The expense and negative publicity are not worth it!
It Expands Your Clientele
Nearly 50 million Americans live with a disability, and many of them access web information via assistive technology.
Your potential target audience grows when you have a website that anyone can view and use.
Your goods and services can be made accessible to such groups with the use of alt text, captions, keyboard-accessible pages, and other changes.
A person cannot make a purchase if they are unable to access your online store.
Therefore, accessibility increases the possibility of profit from a business perspective. This makes it obvious.
Building ADA Compliance Your Name
The success of a firm depends on its brand.
Why? Because brands, not stuff, are what we fall in love with.
Even when they aren’t the most affordable solutions, strong branding causes us to return to the same businesses repeatedly.
When companies go above and beyond to implement accessibility, even when it’s not mandated, they demonstrate to their customers that they care about more than just their bottom line.
A dedication to your audience reveals a lot about your brand and the principles you uphold as a business, which can help you build a stronger bond with your clients.
SEO Can Benefit from ADA Compliance
Because it increases visitors, you want your website to be search engine optimized. You’ll be pleased to learn that ADA compliance for your website can benefit SEO.
A double victory
This is due to the fact that compliance promotes SEO-friendly elements like alt text for images, video and audio transcripts, appropriate heading tags, and dependable and consistent structures.
Screen readers and search engines will respond more favorably to alt language that is more precise and evocative.
Search engines now have more keyword options because to transcripts, which give them scrollable information.
Likewise, both readers and search engines will benefit from your headings if they are more specific.
Accessibility not only benefits your bottom line, but it also encourages traffic.
Why wouldn’t you exert further effort?
How Can I ADA-Comply My Website?
You’re ready to start making your website accessible now that you’re persuaded. But where do you even begin?
Although the concept of accessibility appears straightforward, achieving compliance is a different matter.
Why is making your website ADA compliant so difficult?
Many website owners are unfamiliar with code, which is where some of the problems are.
Additionally, you might need to start from scratch if the structure of your site is complicated or unpredictable.
Some of the requirements are also challenging to comprehend.
I’ve got good news if you’re stressed and unsure of where to begin:
Making a website accessible doesn’t have to be difficult.
I’ll teach you exactly what to do and when you should think about hiring a pro.
What you should know is as follows.
Audit the accessibility of the website
What you don’t know is broken, you can’t mend. An audit is used in this situation.
However, you are not required to invest a lot of money or work with a professional.
To evaluate the present functionality of your site, start with free website accessibility checker tools. You can see the W3C’s list of Web accessibility evaluation tools.
Website accessibility and ADA compliance
You can determine your first actions and discover where you stand in terms of accessibility by using these ADA website compliance checker tools.
You can probably take care of the navigation bar adjustment and a few minor alt tag additions by yourself.
These tools will give you a decent indication of what modifications need to be done if you need to make more substantial changes, and you can then choose how to proceed.
Although they won’t be able to catch everything, these tools are an excellent place to start when making adjustments. You’ll require a thorough manual review for that.
Fix the Site’s Problematic Areas
The accessibility of your website may involve complex coding, but there are a number of things you can start doing right away. These consist of:
Images should have descriptive Alt text to aid screen readers in understanding what they are.
Make sure your links have descriptive anchor text so that readers will understand what they will be clicking on.
Use appropriate header tagging (H2, H3, etc.) to enhance consumption using only the keyboard.
Include form labels in your coding to let screen readers know where to find input fields.
Make your website accessible for keyboard-only consumption by removing <div> and <span> elements and ensuring navigation tools can be accessed using the Tab key.
You’ll notice many of the critical components for website accessibility are also helpful in search engine optimization.
ADA website compliance alt text
For instance, having anchor text for links that say “click here” or “check out this link” does nothing to make your site more searchable. Use descriptive terms instead.
Those five items above are essential for website accessibility, but they are just the first steps. Once these are fixed, it’s time to dig deeper.
Perform A Manual Accessibility Review
Fixing what you can on your own is a great place to start. But, there will likely be things you won’t know how to do.
That’s where a manual accessibility auditor comes in. They’ll sift through all pages on your site and compile a list of issues to address.
Also, consider working with an accessibility consultant or an attorney to ensure your ADA website compliance update is adequate. This action is to reduce the chances of a compliance lawsuit later on.
Tackle Your Website’s Code
With the manual review completed, you can start to tackle the hidden compliance issues on your site. If you can edit the code yourself, you’ll probably save yourself some cash!
However, if you’re unable to update your website’s code yourself or are unsure of what needs to be changed, it might be time to hire a web agency or developer.
Another option, particularly for WordPress users, is to switch to an ADA compliant WordPress theme. You’ll still have to add alt tags and ensure link anchor text is descriptive yourself, but the site’s core should have ADA website compliance right off the bat.
Whichever way you go, hiring someone to make ADA website compliance updates will be much more affordable when you already know what’s wrong.
Conclusion
Ensuring the accessibility of your website should be on every business’ to-do list.
While you might not be subject to laws, ADA website compliance is a no-brainer for healthy businesses looking to grow—and, as you grow, you may end up required to meet ADA standards anyway!
An inaccessible website cuts your business off from a broader audience, looking for exactly what you offer.
