#ADASiteCompliance

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How To Avoid a Website Accessibility Lawsuit

Every day, thousands of people are unable to use and interact with websites because of web accessibility issues. This can lead to a website accessibility lawsuit for you or your company. Over the past few years, certain regulations and guidelines to prevent this have emerged – more specifically, the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA).

The Act was carried as a civil rights legislation, which passed in the US to protect the rights of people with disabilities, as well as prohibit any discrimination against them. As per the ADA website rules, all people with disabilities have to have equal opportunities to participate in programs, receive services, seek knowledge, and express themselves freely.

Why Is Web Accessibility Important?

Website accessibility refers to the ability of people with a wide range of physical and mental disabilities to access websites, products, systems, services, and facilities featured on a website. For instance, web accessibility means that visually impaired or blind people can purchase tickets, use apps, recharge transportation cards, and use other services offered online.

Web content should be accessible to people, even ones using screen readers and other assistive technologies and automated tools. In times when around 1 in 5 people in the U.S. lives with one or more disabling conditions, statistics show that there are more than 50 million people in the United States and around 1.3 billion around the world who have a certain form of disability.

At the same time, improved digital accessibility benefits everyone. The features that would be designed for 20% of the population can also be used by the other 80% – we all know that anyone can be affected by a disability, which is why equal access matters. Adhere to these new standards for the disabled or you are likely to face a website accessibility lawsuit soon.

Digital Accessibility Features That Can Benefit Everyone

Some of the most important digital accessibility features that can benefit everyone include the following:

Text-to-Speech and Voice Recognition features, help people access online services on a mobile device when driving, or when their hands are full.

Features that enable captions on media content, can help when you are in a noisy environment or in situations when you don’t want to distract others.

An option to easily magnify text by screen magnifiers, which can help disabled and people with vision impairments and difficulties, but also people who suffer from temporary eye injuries.

Besides regular business compliance, an ADA site can improve the overall marketing of the company, especially when using the right tools that are known as popular in this manner. These can assist you in avoiding a website accessibility lawsuit.

About ADA & The Web Accessibility Guidelines

Web accessibility guidelines have existed for two decades. They aim to bring usability and user experience design together, removing barriers for people with disabilities and enabling more users to complete tasks online.

Generally speaking, these guidelines are designed to provide a sufficient level of detail for any person interacting on the web. Some guidelines involve discrete and identifiable criteria (for example, embedding images and link areas with appropriate text) while others require greater amounts of professional discretion (the use of code to improve navigability, predictability, compatibility with certain software, etc.).

Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)

Establishing a legal framework around digital accessibility ensures that companies give equal access to content to disabled users, and make their services accessible to a large audience. Over the past decade, companies have been rushing to embrace accessibility in order to strengthen their financial and ethical benefits. The legal requirement came into effect in 2010, known as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

This legal framework outlines all the digital accessibility requirements for every company profile in the United States. Basically, ADA compliance ensures that a set of laws is put in place to prevent any discrimination against people with disabilities. It is applicable in all areas of public life including work, school, education, and transportation services. Established by the Department of Justice, ADA compliance requires websites to enable people to use the Internet as well as online services.

Who Needs To Follow The ADA Requirements?

There are three main titles within ADA, where Title I applies to all businesses with at least 15 full-time employees. Title II of the ADA applies to state and local government compliance. Lastly, ADA Title III refers to most businesses as well as non-profit business entities in the “accommodation” and “public spaces” categories.

Online services and digital information are also considered public accommodations and require ADA compliance. Below is a summarized list of companies, businesses, and organizations that are required to comply and are at risk of ADA lawsuits in case of violations:

State and local government offices

Private business entities employing 15 or more people

Corporations that operate for the benefit of the public

Banking Institutions

Hotels and travel/tour agencies or businesses

Hospitals and healthcare institutes

Schools, universities, and educational institutions.

WCAG

A document known as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is what has been the globally accepted standard defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The regulations spread through three levels of accessibility for both online and digital services, including:

Level A is the minimum level of accessibility that is required for individuals to make digital content accessible to people with disabilities.

Level AA is the medium level of accessibility that is required for individuals to access and interact with digital content, navigating it without any barriers.

Level AAA is the maximum level of accessibility that is required for individuals, where digital content needs to be accessed but also has an additional interface layer, providing the most convenient experience.

Many types of web content are unable to reach Level AAA. On the other hand, Level AA compliance is the minimum required level in order to make a website accessible.

Why Are WCAG 2.0 And 2.1 Created?

The WCAG 2.0 and WCAG 2.1 guidelines have been created to provide a clear methodology and a unique standard for digital accessibility that meets the needs of all individuals, companies, and governments. The standard applies to a broad range of web technologies, implemented by a set of web development and web design techniques, as well as tested by a range of automated tools.

In times when many businesses or website owners don’t understand how people interact with their websites or mobile apps, having an ADA website that conforms to the regulations can help you prevent accessibility lawsuits.

Moreover, a website designed as per the latest website usability and accessibility reviews is a good way to expand your reach to a broader target audience, improve your marketing efforts, and ensure that every user has equal access to your information, products, or services.

Here, it is important to prepare the digital content including text, audio, video, graphics, and illustrations with alternatives, as well as use formats that are supported by the users’ assistive technologies.

Still, the remaining challenges include the lack of skilled developers that are trained in accessibility, as well as the lack of awareness about ADA compliance and how to build an ADA-compliant website or mobile app and avoid a website accessibility lawsuit.

U.S. Rehabilitation Act

The U.S. Rehabilitation Act is a federal law that prohibits any discrimination on the basis of disability in programs conducted by federal agencies. The rule applies to programs receiving federal financial support and includes the following two sections designed for website accessibility compliance:

Section 504 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act, protects children and adults with disabilities from discrimination in schools and workplaces. There are specific accessibility criteria for online educational resources.

Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act, where government bodies and federal services are required to make electronic and information technology (EIT) accessible to all people, including disabled people.

ADA Lawsuits Are On The Rise: Is Your Website At Risk?

While many still don’t understand what accessibility is and why it is important, advocates are everywhere writing guides and helping website owners understand and implement these digital accessibility rules. However, website accessibility lawsuits are on the rise and make the news nearly every day in the United States. This happens mostly because there are still no enforceable regulations for website accessibility.

The set of regulations is under Section 508 by law, where federal websites in the U.S. are required to check and meet these standards. In order to prevent ADA lawsuits, most simply follow Section 508 or the WCAG 2.0 and 2.1 AAA guidelines.

Accessibility laws are changing and are different in many countries. Besides the U.S., the UK and Canada are also starting to enforce accessibility. However, we will stick to the site accessibility lawsuits and how to prevent them by complying with the law while making your website accessible.

Popular Website Compliance Lawsuits & Settlements

Statistics from Seyfarth show that in 2018 alone, there were a total of 2258 website accessibility lawsuits to the federal court, which was a 177% jump from the previous year. In 2019, the number of cases also increased, most of which were in the retail, food service, entertainment and leisure, travel/hospitality, self-service, and real estate industries.

One of the first federal court lawsuits filed against a big name occurred in 2006, when the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) as the plaintiff sued Target, a U.S. supermarket chain, for its inability to comply with ADA rules.

In the hospitality industry, Domino’s Pizza was one of the companies which received a lawsuit filed in federal court. In 2016, a visually impaired man sued the popular chain because his screen reader was incompatible with their mobile app, so the device could not read aloud its contents.

In 2012, the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) filed a lawsuit against Netflix, for not providing closed captions in its online TV and movie streaming services. The plaintiff has taken legal action against the popular streaming service and the case quickly arrived at federal court.

Education facilities have not been exempt from lawsuits, too. Two federal class-action lawsuits were filed against Harvard and MIT by the National Institute of the Deaf (NAD) for not providing captions in their online content and courses. After four years of legal action on federal court grounds, Harvard was made liable to pay $1.5 million in litigation and attorney fees.

In most of these cases, big names could have saved themselves from litigation costs and bad publicity by simply adding some accessibility features to their website to reduce the risk of such lawsuits.

Recent posts show that even today, the number of lawsuits filed against companies in federal court actions is increasing. Many small to medium-sized businesses are on the radar, too. Among all states, New York, California, and Florida seem to be hotbeds for legal ADA-related lawsuits.

How to Comply With The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

If you want to prevent an ADA lawsuit, the only route is to plan for, design, as well as build an accessible website. This form of inclusive design should optimize content and help the visually impaired, as well as people with other disabilities, to use and interact with your website.

In fact, every business with a website, mobile app, or internet software application should hire an accessibility specialist to go over the site and ensure full ADA compliance. In order to have an ADA-compliant business website optimized for people with disabilities, you will need to hire these experts who know what needs to be changed and how to ensure compliance.

For instance, if you apply ARIA with HTML5 or your image alt tags are not written properly, you could be facing a lawsuit. However, the source of most ADA lawsuits is the actual inability to access web pages or mobile apps, especially for visually impaired or blind people who use assistive technologies.

There are some builders that are integrated within content management systems and help website owners make the site ADA-compliant. Elementor, a popular WordPress theme-building, and page design plugin are one of them. The plugin helps incorporate parallax, dynamic content, and animations that comply with the accessibility guidelines. There is also the creation of new themes, headings, and footers with full developer control.

What Can You Do To Create An Effective ADA Website And Comply With WCAG: Checklist

The WCAG guidelines outline a set of principles and techniques that make web content “perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.” In other words, users should be able to access content, use interactive elements, navigate through web pages and apps, and use the content on their device of choice.

There are three vital ways to achieve the goals for website accessibility:

Correct use of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

Organization of content properly and logically, so that both humans and assistive tools can interpret its layout, including the use of text alternatives for visual content (YouTube is a good example of this – the platform was designed to automatically add captions to videos uploaded on the network).

Extra attributes are added to HTML and other code so that assistive devices can be used effectively, complying with the existing web accessibility standards.

From Braille readers used for hearing and reading text or images to screen readers and magnifiers for blind or visually impaired users and keyboard/joystick navigators for people who can’t use a mouse or other input controls, all of these ways ensure compliance.

How Do You Test Web Accessibility Across Different Devices?

There are two main ways to test how content shows on a website or mobile app.

The first is automated testing, which involves running a test against the latest WCAG principles. With this method, you can identify 20% to 30% of the compliance issues. That is why developers use it as a starting point when familiarizing themselves with the WCAG requirements set by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Second is manual testing, which is obviously more detailed and complex and will deliver the BEST RESULTS. Here, the testing should identify areas of partial compliance with regulations. Common tests use keyboard-only testing schemes to identify where certain issues occur for people who cannot use mouse or touch interfaces. We specialize in manual testing and correcting all errors.

Within manual testing, there is also the practice of testing pages and case scenarios with a screen reader or an emulator that shows how a webpage will respond to a user who wants to access content with text-to-speech technology.

Run a FREE SITE SCAN with us today to test the accessibility of your website.

Facing An ADA Lawsuit? Here Are 4 Steps To Make Your Site Accessible

As we mentioned above, the purpose of the ADA is to ensure that any disabled person has the same opportunity and rights as others in ensuring that digital content is accessible. Violating ADA can land you a lawsuit and some serious fines (up to $20,000 or more), and the best way to avoid potential litigation for a violation is through the four steps below.

Identify Your Barriers – Examining your business site and any of its features that could be a barrier to people with disabilities is usually the best place to start. Know that having more text is never a bad idea, as more people use assistive technologies nowadays. Put yourself in the shoes of an impaired person and try to understand whether your site is designed so you can freely navigate through its pages.

Understand The Requirements – Understanding the ADA requirements is equally important for everyone. New websites are already being designed with web accessibility in mind, and seeing what these rules require can only help you visualize and plan for new content in a better way.

Train Your Staff To Assist – If you work with a web design specialist, make sure that person is familiar with WCAG and able to align your content and marketing tools to support the ADA laws.

Hire A Professional – If you have multiple websites, or find it difficult to optimize your company website to comply with web accessibility laws, you can always seek our professional assistance to prevent an ADA lawsuit.

Hiring expert ADA consultants to audit the level of your website’s accessibility, provide guidance on remediation, and maintain accessible design is recommended if you want to lower the risk of a potential lawsuit.

Final Words

The bottom line of complying with web accessibility is that it offers a number of ways to build a reputation but also targets a broader audience. Users deserve to have equal access to content online, and many of their common tasks have been identified by regulators as essential for modern living. Therefore, it is vital to take advantage of these services and opportunities, and doing that would also prevent accessibility lawsuits.

Every organization, whether large or small, should ensure that they are aware of their accessibility obligations. In doing so, they will mitigate any risks of facing an accessibility lawsuit, but also maximize their revenue potential. In the end, wider accessibility equals a better online experience for everyone.

How good is your web accessibility? If you need help making your company website or mobile app accessible and complying with U.S. Federal regulations, contact us today. We will carry out a full audit and suggest the best ways to help your business site ensure full ADA compliance and prevent lawsuits.

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How to Make Sure Your Website Is ADA-Compliant

There are several different pieces of legislation that were passed in the last decade to help both regulate and improve the way that websites work for the public. Just last year, GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) laws were passed in Europe, which helps to regulate how private information is used in marketing, for example. Source: https://www.entrepreneurshipsecret.com/how-to-make-sure-your-website-is-ada-compliant/ Read the full article

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Digital Content Accessibility

Discover ADA Site Compliance's solutions for digital content accessibility, ensuring inclusivity online!

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AI Influences Web Accessibility

The Future Of AI And Web Accessibility

In our increasingly digital world, equal access to information is crucial. However, many individuals with disabilities face challenges in accessing online content, such as websites, articles, and videos, due to various barriers.

Imagine a world where technology empowers everyone to access information effortlessly, regardless of their abilities. Thanks to artificial intelligence (AI), this vision is becoming a reality. AI is breaking down barriers and making technology more accessible.

By improving information accessibility, AI not only aids individuals with disabilities but also enhances the overall user experience for everyone. ChatGPT-3 has accelerated AI-driven innovation, and while the future of AI and website accessibility is unknown, innovative technologies like GPT-5 have immense potential to enhance accessibility.

We at ADA Site Compliance have a team of accessibility experts who stay updated with the latest regulatory trends and emerging technology. They help organizations like yours ensure that all digital content meets accessibility standards.

Exploring the Future Potential of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) involves creating computer systems designed to mimic human intelligence. A fundamental aspect of AI is machine learning algorithms, a subset that allows computers to learn and evolve based on experience without explicit programming.

Technological advancements have unlocked AI’s vast potential, enabling intelligent devices to perform tasks that once were solely within the realm of human cognition.

What is AI?

To grasp how AI influences web accessibility, we first need to define it.

Artificial Intelligence involves developing software and systems that perform tasks requiring human intelligence. AI achieves this through various technologies, including natural language processing and computer vision. As these functions become more accessible, they benefit society even more

What Are Accessibility Technologies?

Accessibility technologies provide tools and solutions to ensure that people with disabilities can access and use web content effectively. These technologies, including AI-powered tools like chatbots, digital platforms like GPT, screen readers, and alternative input devices, are designed to enhance digital accessibility and foster inclusivity.

Current AI Technologies

AI is rapidly enhancing web accessibility. Improved computer vision algorithms are making it easier for visually impaired users and seniors to understand web content through better descriptions of visual content.

Here are a few examples of current AI technologies:

1. GPT-4:

OpenAI’s newest chatbot, GPT-4, enhances accessibility for third-party companies. In partnership with Be My Eyes, GPT-4 introduces an AI-powered Virtual Volunteer to assist visually impaired individuals.

2. Apple’s Accessibility Features:

Apple continues to set the standard in accessibility with a suite of new tools launched on Global Accessibility Awareness Day. These enhancements include improved Voice Control, customizable Siri options, and a unique Assistive Access mode to simplify device usage for people with motor or cognitive disabilities.

3. Google’s Enhanced Navigation Features:

In October, Google upgraded its navigation features for Google Maps and business pages. These enhancements include wheelchair-accessible walking routes, improved Live View for visually impaired users, and a new identity attribute label to help locate disabled-owned businesses.

4. Natural Language Processing (NLP):

NLP enhances text readability, aiding individuals with cognitive disorders, learning disabilities, and age-related cognitive decline.

Despite these advancements, this cutting-edge technology is not yet perfect. Image recognition still struggles with complex scenes and context, and NLP-based text simplification can sometimes lead to a loss of significance. Nevertheless, these developments represent a promising beginning for enhanced digital accessibility.

Examples of How AI Enhances Digital Accessibility

Individuals with visual, auditory, or mobility impairments often face challenges in navigating the digital landscape of the web. Here are some ways AI is making accessibility improvements:

1) Speech Recognition

Speech recognition technology is incredibly beneficial for those with physical limitations, restricted mobility, or typing difficulties. AI-powered speech and voice recognition technologies enable users to control devices and navigate the web using voice commands, significantly enhancing their online accessibility and overall experience.

2) Enhanced Browsing Experience

Did you know that AI-powered virtual assistants and chatbots can significantly enhance online browsing?

These technologies provide personalized support, helping individuals with disabilities access important information and navigate websites more effectively. Accessible websites perform better in search engines but also offer a superior user experience for everyone.

3) AI-Enhanced Visualization for Visually Impaired Users

Imagine a world where images and text describe everything around you. AI-powered screen readers and text-to-speech technologies make written content accessible for visually impaired individuals. Additionally, image recognition systems can describe photos, videos, and live scenes, offering valuable assistance to those with visual impairments.

A crucial accessibility element for visually impaired users is “alt text.” AI can automatically generate alt text for images and videos, ensuring quick and accurate descriptions that describe images. This allows screen readers to interpret and explain on-screen images, making web content more inclusive and accessible.

AI Benefits for Web Accessibility

AI is revolutionizing web accessibility, offering numerous benefits that enhance the online experience for individuals with disabilities. Here are some key advantages AI brings to web accessibility:

a) Enhanced Access

AI has significantly advanced web accessibility for individuals with disabilities. It removes obstacles, enabling users to navigate websites, consume multimedia content more, and engage in online communities more effectively.

b) Boosted Independence and Autonomy

AI empowers individuals with disabilities to use the internet independently. This innovation allows them to manage their online activities without assistance, fostering greater inclusion and promoting autonomy.

Challenges Posed by AI on Web Accessibility

AI enhances online accessibility, but it also introduces several challenges. Here are some key issues AI poses for web accessibility:

i) Accuracy Challenges

Despite advancements, AI often struggles with providing reliable captions, descriptions, translations, and voice recognition. Errors in these areas can make it difficult for users to understand content, thereby limiting the effectiveness of accessibility features.

ii) Over-Reliance

Relying too heavily on AI to improve web accessibility can result in overlooking other essential aspects of accessible design. Use AI alongside comprehensive other accessibility guidelines and principles and not seen as a universal solution.

Future of AI-Driven Web Accessibility

With AI becoming more advanced, it will continue enhancing technology usability and improving web accessibility. Developers will save time and resources when using these tools to discover and fix accessibility issues.

Remember that automated tools cannot guarantee accessibility compliance.

Human knowledge and manual testing by experienced accessibility auditing specialists will still be needed to discover complicated issues and create a fully inclusive user experience for elders and disabled people.

This is where we at ADA Site Compliance can help. We have a team of accessibility experts and web developers who stay updated with the latest regulatory trends to help organizations like yours ensure all web content meets accessibility standards.

For all your website and digital content accessibility needs, contact ADA Site Compliance today!

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ADA Standards For Accessible Design

ADA Site Compliance specializes in implementing ADA standards for accessible design on your digital platforms!

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Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)

Latest Regulation And Finale Rule On Web Content And Mobile App Accessibility For State And Local Governments

In a significant advancement for digital inclusivity, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland has enacted a critical update under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This new regulation compels state and local governments to ensure their websites and mobile app accessibility for individuals with disabilities.

Considering the integral role of digital platforms in providing access to services such as emergency responses, healthcare, voting, and public transit, the lack of accessibility could significantly prevent disabled individuals from accessing necessary services.

This rule clarifies governmental bodies’ responsibilities and highlights the imperative for businesses to adjust, even amidst evolving compliance landscapes.

ADA Site Compliance works to help companies comply with regulatory mandates. With a dedicated team that monitors regulation updates, we ensure businesses confidently maintain websites that meet current accessibility standards.

Statements from Justice Department Officials

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland: Emphasized the rule’s role in fulfilling ADA’s promise for equal participation. He stated that by establishing definitive digital accessibility standards for state and local governments, they support the ADA’s mission of ensuring full and equal participation for people with disabilities. He also commended the diligent efforts of the Civil Rights Division in implementing this rule.

Acting Associate Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer highlighted the commitment to making digital platforms usable for everyone to participate fully in society.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke described the rule as groundbreaking, noting that it removes barriers that have historically excluded Americans with disabilities, and ensures equal access to essential online government services like voting and public benefits.

Importance of Web and Mobile App Accessibility

As state and local governments increasingly digitize their services, the accessibility of their web and mobile platforms becomes crucial. Inaccessible websites and applications can exclude individuals with disabilities from accessing vital services.

For example, visually impaired individuals often need screen readers to navigate websites and applications. Governmental sites posting crucial public information in images without alternative text (“alt text”), is inaccessible to blind users.

Such digital barriers can prevent disabled persons from performing essential activities such as securing mail-in ballots, obtaining tax information, or engaging in community events.

The latest regulation aims to guarantee individuals with disabilities have full access to state and local government online services, programs, and activities. This rule also clarifies steps governments take to adhere to ADA standards, ensuring inclusivity and equal access for every community member.

Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

Title II of the ADA mandates that all services, programs, and activities provided by state and local governments are accessible to individuals with disabilities.

This extensive requirement encompasses everything from adoption services to zoning regulations and includes both online services and mobile applications managed by state and local authorities.

The rule ensures that individuals with disabilities can fully access and benefit from public services, promoting a more inclusive society with an improved quality of life for disabled individuals nationwide.

This includes:

Making public transportation details accessible to visually impaired users, Enabling the deaf or hard of hearing to participate in online educational courses,

Aiding those with manual dexterity issues in navigating web-based services.

Overview of State and Local Government Functions:

State and local governments are essential providers of numerous public services, including:

Offices administering social benefits like food assistance

Educational facilities

Law enforcement agencies at state and municipal levels.

Judicial systems of local and state courts.

Offices overseeing state and local electoral processes.

Public medical facilities

Community resources like parks, recreational facilities, and public transportation systems.

Accessibility standards under Title II apply to all entities within state and local governments, including their various departments, agencies, special purpose districts, Amtrak, and commuter authorities.

Furthermore, state and local governments contracting with third-party organizations, like non-profits managing drug treatment programs, must ensure these entities adhere to Title II’s accessibility standards.

What Constitutes a Rule or Regulation?

Rules or regulations are formal directives issued by a government agency, from laws enacted by Congress. Following the enactment of the ADA, the Department was authorized to develop regulations to articulate the responsibilities outlined in Title II and Title III of the ADA. Typically, these regulations consist of the regulatory text and an appendix.

The Process of Developing a Rule

The Department formulated this rule through a method known as “notice and comment rulemaking.” The process starts with declaring a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), serving the regulation’s initial draft and proposed requirements, and inviting public feedback.

The Department modified the proposed rule based on the NPRM feedback. Detailed descriptions of the public feedback and rule adjustments are in the rule’s appendix.

What are technical standards?

Technical standards are detailed criteria defining accessibility requirements. For instance, the ADA Standards for Accessible Design include specifications like minimum width for doorways to ensure physical accessibility in buildings and ADA-compliant websites.

Requirement for State and local government websites

This regulation covers all web content handled by state or local governments and must conform to WCAG 2.1, Level AA, including content administered by external contractors.

Example: If a county’s website displays a list of local parks and operating hours, it must adhere to WCAG 2.1, Level AA for accessibility, even if a third-party service provider developed and updated the site.

Web content includes text, images, audio, videos, and documents on the internet.

Requirement for State and Local Government Mobile Apps:

Mobile apps used by state and local governments must conform to WCAG 2.1, Level AA standards. It includes all mobile apps provided or accessible by state or local governments, and external parties.

Mobile apps are software applications specifically designed for use on smartphones and tablets. Developed by the World Wide Web Consortium, WCAG standards make web content universally accessible.

Example: Consider a mobile app developed by a city facilitating public parking payments. The app must comply with the WCAG 2.1, Level AA accessibility standards, no matter if the city or a private company manages it.

Going Beyond Standard Compliance with WCAG 2.1, Level AA

State and local governments have the leeway to adopt web content and mobile apps extending beyond the minimum requirements of WCAG 2.1, Level AA.

This provision for “equivalent facilitation” allows using alternative designs, methods, or technologies, if they offer accessibility and usability equal to or greater than mentioned by the standard.

This flexibility is intended to accommodate the adoption of future, potentially more stringent standards while ensuring continued accessibility for individuals with disabilities.

Example: For instance, a state parks department might implement WCAG Version 3.0 for its new mobile app for booking campsite reservations, if it offers better or equivalent accessibility compared to WCAG 2.1, Level AA.

Specific Exceptions to the Rule Explained

There are various situations where there are exceptions to digital content conforming with the rule. They include:

Archived Web Content:

This applies to outdated or unused content stored in archives, such as old reports or documents, that remain unchanged since archiving. However city council minutes and documents created after the compliance deadline must adhere to accessibility standards.

Even PDFs with up-to-date data on county park maps must conform, regardless of archival status.

Pre-existing Conventional Electronic Documents:

This applies to documents like PDFs or Word files on government digital platforms created before the compliance date and not updated or essential for current use.

However, documents posted or updated after the established compliance deadline do not qualify for exemptions. Active-use documents for accessing government services, irrespective of publication date do not qualify either.

Third-Party Content:

Content posted by third parties without a contractual or official arrangement with the government, which the government cannot modify is exempt. However, content directly posted or managed by the government like calendars developed by external companies, updates made by a government vendor, and message boards must meet WCAG 2.1, Level AA standards.

Individualized Documents:

Applies to personal documents like water bills and documents about specific individuals or accounts available in a secure, password-protected format. They can be challenging for immediate accessibility, especially for recipients without specific disability requirements.

Preexisting Social Media Posts:

This includes all social media posts made before the compliance date. However, if a visually impaired person requests information about a social media image from 2023, the government must provide an accessible description for effective communication.

Conclusion

The new regulation marks a significant step forward in ensuring that all individuals, regardless of disability, have equal access to digital resources provided by state and local governments.

This move aligns with the ADA’s long-standing commitment to inclusivity and modernizes public services to be more accessible, enhancing civic engagement and participation across the community.

ADA Site Compliance works to help companies comply with regulatory mandates. With a dedicated team that monitors regulation updates, we ensure businesses confidently maintain websites that meet current accessibility standards. Get your FREE ACCESSIBILITY SCAN here!

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Benefits Of Website Accessibility

Emphasizing the advantages of making a website accessible to a diverse audience, this description covers the positive outcomes for both users and businesses!

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Web Accessibility

Top 10 Benefits Of Website Accessibility

The internet offers massive opportunities and knowledge, so you should design websites that everyone can access. So it is not surprising to see increased emphasis on website accessibility benefits.

What exactly is web accessibility?

This may be next on your mind. Web accessibility ensures your website provides equal opportunity for ordinary people and those with physical impairments like blindness and cognitive disabilities. With one out of four adult Americans having a disability, a website with an accessible design lets everyone, with or without disabilities, experience and enjoy web-based services, content, and digital products.

For example, thanks to web accessibility, people with visual impairments can use multiple assistive technology tools like screen radars to interact with web design and apps appropriately. In addition, accessibility techniques also offer other benefits associated with general readability, findability, and comprehension. And most importantly, it provides the following ten web accessibility benefits to your business.

Top 10 Benefits of Website Accessibility

Most businesses hesitate to make their website accessible because they worry about the associated investments and high costs. To make things worse, most are not even aware of the many benefits of web accessibility. They assume that after spending so much time and effort conforming to site accessibility guidelines, only the users benefit from it, not their business. However, little do they know that accessible websites offer the following ten benefits to business owners too:

1. Increased website traffic

Businesses need to realize that an accessible website will provide equal access to those with physical deformities, cognitive impairments, and ordinary people. So by letting everyone visit and use their site, their traffic rates naturally increase with time. With this increased traffic comes better user engagement and improved search engine optimization rankings, thus leading to possible higher conversion rates.

2. Reduced risk of legal complications

With the high and more challenging legal requirements regarding web accessibility, optimizing your site for people with disabilities makes good business sense. Ensuring your site meets your industry’s specific accessibility standards reduces the risks of facing legal complications and possible prosecution. You don’t provide a reason for anyone to place a case against you for not providing them access to your web content.

3. More customers

Accessible websites ensure you reach more social groups, growing your customer base in the long term. Especially with inaccessible websites missing out on 15-20% of potential clients, an accessible site broadens your market penetration. This, in turn, leads to more customers, improved revenue sales, and enhanced web brand visibility.

4. Helps develop an innovative business mindset

As you optimize your web design for accessibility, you must stay creative and innovative to keep up and adapt your web design to ensure it conforms to the constantly changing trends. This, in turn, proves beneficial to your business as you have to keep yourself updated with the latest trends.

5. Improved website SEO

Everyone knows how getting a high SERP ranking helps improve your website’s online visibility. And with SEO goals and web accessibility methods being pretty much aligned, your accessible web design kills two birds with one stone.

For example, adhering to web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG), like adding ALT-text to images, writing explicit content, and having a clutter-free page, improves your website SEO. Besides, an accessible site boosts your rankings while increasing your bounce rate as your website appeals to screen readers and search engines.

Besides, a site providing easy navigation is user-friendly and helps search engine web crawlers recognize your site. It, in turn, leads to increased higher rankings in relevant search results. Some other good SEO practices worth making include:

No longer making use of images to present text content

Having transcripts for all videos

Using descriptive text alternatives for content in images, links, buttons, and other non-text elements

6. Improves your brand reputation

Another benefit of an accessible website is that it helps build your brand’s reputation. And if you wonder why and how, it is mainly because having a website that everyone cannot access is equivalent to telling your visitors to stay away. These sites do not provide equal opportunity and access to everyone to your business content and features. So those with physical deformities and cognitive issues cannot check out your business.

On the contrary, an ADA-compliant site keeps its doors open for millions of customers who may previously not have been able to access the business. And as only a few websites are ADA-compliant, you prove you care for about 61 million Americans who once could not learn more about you and your business by welcoming them to your website. This boosts and strengthens your brand reputation as people with disabilities with positive web experiences

7. Reduced page loading times

No one has the patience to wait for a page to load. So there is a high chance of your visitors leaving your site if your pages take a long time to load. Thus, you must improve page loading times to provide guests with a fast web experience. And one of the best ways to improve your page speed score is by using a few strategies that help improve your page’s accessibility levels.

8. Helps you reach a broader audience

It is simply good business sense to have a site everyone can access. You not only get more traffic, but they are also from a wider audience. And the good news is that a few logical modifications go a long way in improving the web experience for people with disabilities like visual impairment. It includes making changes like adding transcripts, providing support for mobile devices, and having closed captions to conform to their needs.

9. Better user journey leading to more conversions

An accessible website streamlines your visitors’ journey by guiding them to find what they are looking for while maintaining an optimal user experience. You can do it through the following:

A clear and logical information architecture structure. It makes it easier for visitors to use devices like screen readers, keyboard navigation, and other similar assistive technologies to navigate your site.

Intuitive navigation using wayfinding clues like breadcrumbs make an effective way to help them find what they are looking for or what you want them to see.

Using less complicated forms with descriptive labels in plain English makes filling forms easier and thus increases the number of conversions.

Reducing the number of steps in the checkout process

Providing clear instructions, links, and link text for each step

Ensuring any session timeout is long enough for people with disabilities using assistive technologies to complete.

10. Promotes business growth

Your website represents your business on the internet. And the more free marketing you enjoy through free traffic, the better it is for your business. People with disabilities are usually associated with multiple organizations. So sites conforming with WCAG provide free marketing to these organizations.

Conclusion

The presence of accessible websites is no doubt a positive move for not only your audience but also for your business. You get to cater to that audience who wants to reach out to and do business with many companies. And once you do grant them access to your site, you automatically open your business doors to exponential growth. You may have to spend time making your site accessible by cleaning up code, eliminating bugs, and reaching a universal design. However, it will be time well spent as focusing on on-site usability and accessibility helps your user base grow. Besides, you build a connection with the disability community by showing that you care for them through your accessible website. Your new clients will then show gratitude to you by ending up fiercely loyal visitors relying solely on your site!

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How To Do Website Accessibility The Right Way

Web accessibility is important nowadays, and making your website accessible can offer numerous benefits beyond compliance. Believe it or not, statistics show that around 25% of adults in the United States live with a certain form of disability.

Still, many websites are not optimized for users with disabilities, who mainly use screen readers, text-to-speech devices, and other forms of assistive technology. Before we go into detail on the subject, let’s talk more about what is web accessibility and how to design an accessible website.

What Is Website Accessibility?

Website accessibility is the practice of designing and developing websites, tools, as well as other assistive technologies that can help people with disabilities use and interact with websites. Developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), this standard allows users with disabilities to perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with or contribute to the web.

Generally speaking, web accessibility is a set of criteria that applies to all disabilities that prevent people from accessing the web. These include cognitive, physical, speech, visual, neurological, or auditory disabilities.

The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) gathers all of the standards under Title II and Title III requirements, where:

Title II requires all state and local governments, as well as governmental entities, to receive federal funding to provide access to their programs, services, or activities to people with disabilities

Title III, which are guidelines that prohibit “places of public accommodations such as restaurants, hotels, movie theaters, museums, and hospitals from disability-based discrimination.”

Not complying with the ADA website requirements puts you at risk of a lawsuit. the number of lawsuits has increased over the past few years, and small to medium-sized businesses are currently some of the common victims.

Why Is Web Accessibility Important For Every Business?

There are plenty of benefits when making your website accessible. For the most part, you will benefit by:

Giving your target audience equal access to your site, and with that, expanding your audience

Protecting your company from potential fines and lawsuits that may arise from having an inaccessible website

Demonstrating your brand’s ability to serve everyone

Growing your business by being ethical and using that as part of your marketing

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

The set of guidelines developed through the W3C process and in cooperation with certain individuals or organizations around the world aims to provide a single shared standard for web content accessibility, meeting the needs of individuals, organizations, and governments around the world.

The WCAG documentation clearly explains how to make your website more accessible. The versions WCAG 2.0, 2.1, and 2.2 are commonly used and present guidelines on how to present standard text, alt text on images, text in videos and sounds, as well as how to alter your code to define the structure, presentation of things, etc. The good thing is that if you optimize a web page to conform to the WCAG 2.1 standard, for example, you should know that it automatically complies with WCAG 2.0, too.

The WCAG guidelines are primarily intended for web content developers, web designers, and web accessibility evaluation tool developers, but also other people who want to explore the standard for web accessibility that is becoming common in many countries around the world.

2020 Was A Record-Breaking Year For ADA Website Accessibility Lawsuits

In 2020, the number of website, app, and video accessibility lawsuit cases went up by 25%, and December 2020 alone saw a rise of almost 100% compared to January 2020. The total digital accessibility lawsuits exceeded 3,500 and there were more websites that were reported as not accessible to people than ever before.

Compared to the 2314 cases reported in 2018, or the 2890 cases in 2019, the numbers in 2020 show that plaintiffs keep finding websites with accessibility issues.

According to a 2020 WebAIM research report, 98.1% of the top one million websites’ home pages had some easily detectable WCAG failures. Right now, companies are adding stores, websites, and digital content at a rapid pace, and the accessibility initiatives are not keeping up.

Among the lawsuits, companies in retail are taking the lead. Not having an accessible website is one of the main reasons plaintiffs decide to sue retailers. Other prominent industries include food service, education, entertainment and leisure, banking, insurance, etc.

How To Make Your Website Accessible And Avoid A Lawsuit

Optimizing your website for disabled visitors is what every business owner should be doing nowadays to prevent a lawsuit. Making your website accessible not only helps to prevent a lawsuit — it can also position you as a leader in your industry and help you expand to a wider audience.

There are two main ways to do that.

The first one is to hire an expert specialized in website accessibility and pay them to go over your website and all of its elements to ensure full ADA compliance. However, if you are out of budget or can’t afford to pay for such services, there is another option. We here at ADA Site Compliance are those experts!

The second option is to get an expert consultation from an ADA specialist and do things yourself. Obviously, this would require much more effort from your side, but getting a list of things that you can do to improve your accessibility can help a lot, especially if you are new to the subject.

What About Using Widgets Or Apps to Make Your Website Accessible?

There are many different widgets, apps, and software that are nowadays used to help make a website more accessible. These companies use artificial intelligence to bring a site up to compliance. However, many of their tools are different in practice than they are in theory, and do not give complete ADA website compliance.

One of them is AccessiBe. Despite being one of the biggest names in web accessibility nowadays, AccessiBe is a widget that is commonly cited in lawsuits. Lately, lawsuits against this company have emerged, where people claim that the websites don’t comply with the ADA standards.

So in other words, using AccessiBe or other software solutions for your business and website is not recommended. The entire scenario only proves that the best way to make your site accessible and user-friendly is by paying a developer for manual web accessibility coding or getting a list of all the things that need to be done so you can change them yourself.

10 Tips To Make Your Website Accessible

Are you ready to learn more about web accessibility, making your website accessible, and optimizing for assistive technologies? Below, we are listing ten tips to make the most out of your website and improve the user experience for the visually impaired and other users with disabilities.

1. Use Descriptive Headings, Link Text, And Image Alt Text For Content To Be Easily Picked Up By Screen Readers

Writing descriptive headings, link text, and image alt text help people who use screen readers understand every bit of content. Screen reader technology is designed to prompt them to interact with these elements, and activate links or images they are most interested in.

Screen reader technology does not look at web pages — instead, it reads HTML code. If any piece of text there is identified as a heading within the HTML code, the screen reader will announce that it is a heading. That is why it is important to design everything in an intelligent way and use proper heading tags.

If the headings are descriptive and sum up or announce the content that appears beneath them, it instantly becomes easier for screen reader users to find the precise information they need when clicking on the link that leads to the web page.

For images, using proper ALT text can help screen reader users understand the information conveyed by images.

The same goes for the link text — using non-descriptive text like “click here” can only confuse people who use screen readers. That is why all links deserve meaningful descriptions. Besides links, URLs should get the same treatment, and be as short and as concise as possible.

2. Write Short And Concise Paragraphs

Writing short paragraphs also allows users to quickly understand what the paragraph is all about. For example, visually impaired users can decide whether they want to keep listening to the paragraph, or they would prefer to skip to the next one, which they can do easily with a screen reader.

Another common practice is the use of “front-loaded” paragraphs, where the conclusion comes first, and is followed by the what, why, when, where, and how. Writing paragraphs like these allow the screen reader users to gain an understanding of what the paragraph is all about from the start.

3. Provide Information In Lists (Better For Screen Reader Technology)

No matter what content management system you are using, your HTML code is extremely useful when it is full of lists. Screen readers often announce the number of items in each list before actually reading out the list items on the web page, which is how this can help them listen or not listen to the list.

The use of lists (which are marked with the <li> tag) represents a behind-the-scenes change to the code, and won’t affect the visual aesthetics of your website.

4. Place Your Important Elements Higher Up The Web Page

Another great way to help the visually impaired and other users is to place your important interactive elements higher on the web pages. If you are wondering why this is the case, it’s simple — these users press the Tab key to get to these parts, and will often arrive on that page because of that element.

So, the key takeaway here is to place important links and other elements higher up the web page. This is a good practice since most website users, regardless of their ability, usually expert the important information closer to the top of the web page. A good exercise is to use the Tab key on your web page content and notice how easy it is to arrive at the important element.

5. Use ARIA Roles

If you don’t know what ARIA is, it basically stands for “Accessible Rich Internet Applications” The role helps users make dynamic content more accessible. Just like alt text provides information about an image, ARIA roles and attributes provide more information or context about web page elements to screen readers and other forms of assistive technology that is crawling through page content.

Adding an ARIA role is easy — just use a role=”<ROLE TYPE>” attribute. Here, the six most common categories of roles for web page elements include:

Landmark (for navigation),

Document layout (for a description of a section),

Widget (description of HTML),

Abstract (organization and streamlining of a document),

Window (subcategories and subsections of the main document), and

Live Regions (detection of dynamic content changes on a webpage).

In order to make ARIA changes, one should have access to the source code and know ARIA and HTML5 to complete the process.

6. Avoid The Use Of Placeholder Text In Your Forms

Online forms found on your page often feature placeholder text to describe various elements of the form and save some space. However, through the prism of website accessibility, this text is also a non-label text which means that screen readers tend to skip it.

If a screen reader skips the value inside each placeholder in a form, the user won’t be able to fulfill it. So, instead of placeholder text, you can use a <label> tag or an ARIA attribute that won’t go away. Also, users with color blindness will appreciate it if you use the highest text and background contrast.

7. Avoid Using Tables Where You Don’t Need Them

Screen readers get confused when crawling through tables — they typically inform the user of how many rows and columns there are in a table. However, tables follow a specific layout that only people without these impairments can detect. So, using a table is complex and challenging for these devices — especially when it comes to reading tabular data that matches the visual order.

If you think that there is no better solution than tables for a certain type of information, you can maybe explore CSS for data presentation. And if you must create a table and don’t want to use CSS, make sure you use the correct headers for each row and column.

8. Add Keyboard Navigation

Many people don’t use a mouse. Yet, there are so many websites that do not allow navigation with a keyboard, yet this is becoming a trend even for people without impairments. For users who use assistive technologies and don’t use a mouse, though, a site that you can access and use with a keyboard is very much appreciated.

For example, most blind users will use Braille keyboards to access your website. So, it is up to you to ensure that they have access to all of the URLs, anchor text, drop-down menus, forms, CTAs, dialog boxes, and more.

Another good tip is to make your JavaScript widgets accessible with the keyboard. If you don’t want that, you can use HTML links, buttons, and form fields to make sure that all elements of your website are accessible by keyboard.

9. Accessibility For Video And Multimedia

You should make your video and multimedia content accessible. The best tip to do that is to use an audio description to describe your visuals — here, focus only on the images, gestures, and changes in settings, which would help blind users to enjoy the video. Also, make sure that you don’t end up recording hours of audio description and making it meaningless for every user.

Another good solution here is to provide text captions that can be synchronized with the video and audio tracks for all users who are deaf or hard of hearing. Finally, you need to use an accessible multimedia player — HTML5 players are among the most popular in this manner.

10. Choose Your Website’s Colors Carefully

Color psychology is a big topic and visual elements need to align with each other and create a good contrast. The effect of colors on emotions is also big nowadays. However, some of the rules to keep in mind for your main content and colors include avoiding bright colors and keeping a clear contrast.

Similar to colors, your contrast sensitivity should be kept in mind. Here, you should think about color and contrast and all the users who have low color contrast sensitivity. When designing your pages, make sure to have a high contrast between any foreground and background. Also, avoid the use of JavaScript or CSS features that prevent users from increasing the contrast.

These tips will ensure that your essential elements are easy to read, not too bright for impaired users, and good enough so everyone can interact with your main content with ease.

Conclusion

They say that freedom is one of the main principles online, and accessibility is one of the best ways to support that goal. In times when everyone deserves access to the same information online, businesses are using tools to ensure that their visitors and potential customers can properly interact with their websites. Get a FREE SITE SCAN with us!

From the titles to the form, links, and images, your website content needs to help you grow your revenue and business. Making your entire site accessible can only help you in that manner.

Looking for a professional that can ensure your website structure and content are in line? Look no further than us. From alt text to links, headings, the structure of content, and contrast, we are here to audit your website, tell you how to restructure your content (or do that for you), and show why web accessibility matters. Visit this link to contact us today!

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Accessibility Check

As you probably know like PDF accessibility and PDF remediation, web accessibility evaluation is needed by every website owner, and the main goal is for that website to automatically be accessible and user-friendly to people with disabilities.

If you want to make sure that your website meets certain web accessibility standards, looking for a web accessibility check feature is usually a good place to start. As you may know, website accessibility is a set that includes website usability, which basically means that besides accessibility evaluation, your website needs to be usable, too.

If you do a Google search for “web content accessibility tools” you will likely see a lot of results and plenty of useful tools you can use. In today’s article, we are covering some of the tools that are commonly used for an accessibility check – and what you need to know before using each testing tool.

But first, let’s touch on the topic of website accessibility from the aspect of these testing tools.

How Do These Tools Conform To The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines?

Below, we will be listing some of the best web page accessibility tools. You should keep in mind that all of them are used to evaluate your website against accessibility guidelines (including the WCAG 1.0, Section 508, RGAA in France, Stanca Act in Italy, etc.) through scans. Most of them are tools that can be opened as URLs in a browser, but some of them allow you to upload your HTML file or pass your HTML code.. These are not web browser plugins, though – they work without downloading or installing anything to use them.

What’s The Best Web Accessibility Checker?

Here is the list of website accessibility evaluation tools that can help you scan and detect any potential accessibility issues and give you a detailed accessibility check with information on potential broken links, errors, information mishaps, contrast issues, and more on each of your pages.

Accessibility Checker by Intent-Based First on our list is a product that was created in 2020 by Intent-Based as an online web-based audit tool that does a full accessibility check on your site to find any potential accessibility issues and errors. Every potential issue comes with a detailed explanation of what is it, how it affects users with disabilities, and how to solve it.

AChecker – Accessibility Checker Achecker was developed in 2009, this free tool gives you web page accessibility evaluation via URL. You can alternatively upload HTML files and select which guidelines to evaluate them against when creating optimized content for people with disabilities. The list of options includes HTML Validator, BITV, Section 508, Stanca Act, WCAG 1.0, and 2.0.

Cynthia SaysCynthia Says is a website accessibility evaluation tool that can be used for free to identify errors in your content that go against the S. 508 standards or WCAG compliance. The latest version lets you check for issues in your design that are related to the WCAG guidelines.

FAE – Functional Accessibility Evaluator FAE is another program with a great interface and menu, plus a helpful support team behind it. You can check various web page links and test the code for free. The results are divided into five main categories (Navigation and Orientation, Text Equivalents, Scripting, Styling, and HTML Standards) and the insights presented for each URL let you focus on the best way to test and fix issues on each of your web pages.

WAVE – Web Accessibility Versatile Evaluator The wave icon is associated with this unique accessibility tool, which can scan any URL, and give you a detailed report on whether your site is accessible or not. Many websites work with WAVE as their go-to data and accessibility checker, and the best thing about it is that WAVE is completely free to test and use on different websites.

We hope that this group of tools helped you identify some background accessibility issues in your image files, code, app, or business website.  Continuous monitoring and running of tests in the background is the only way to ensure full compliance on every page.

PDF accessibility is also important as web accessibility and can’t be ignored to help people with disabilities and avoid any legal issues. Browse our website for details or contact us if you need services for PDF document accessibility and PDF document remediation.

For a full website evaluation for ADA website compliance, you may run a free scan.

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The Day-To-Day Effects of an Inaccessible Website

Technology has forever changed the way we do business and communicate, especially during the pandemic. For people with disabilities, this isn’t always the best thing. There are many websites out there that are inaccessible to those with disabilities. Making the switch to a fully digital world poses many unique challenges for these individuals. At ADA Site Compliance, it’s our goal to ensure people with disabilities have the right access to a digitally inclusive website. See firsthand how inaccessible websites can impact the day-to-day of those with disabilities.

Paying Bills Online

It seems as if there isn’t a bill you don’t pay online these days. More companies are switching to paperless billing, and the world of online bill paying continues to grow. This creates distinctive challenges for those with disabilities. When your online bill-paying software is not easily accessible, people with disabilities aren’t able to use it to look up their account information, ensure their bills are paid on time, and effectively communicate with your company. Think about what it would be like if you couldn’t get access to necessary information without help. That is why it is imperative to improve your website accessibility for customer satisfaction.

Checking Emails

Checking emails can be difficult for those living with disabilities. One of the fundamentals of using the internet is typing. Typing emails, for example, is an essential part of the online world. Ensuring that your message is getting across correctly is important for anyone, especially those with disabilities. These user experiences need to be optimized for individuals with disabilities.

Ordering Food Online

In the last year, ordering food online has become routine. It’s important to have an app that is accessible and easily allows those with disabilities to place an online food order. At ADA Site Compliance, we’re committed to not only optimizing your website for accessibility but also your apps to guarantee that everyone can seamlessly navigate your app.

At ADA Site Compliance, we specialize in ensuring that your websites, apps, PDFs, and videos are optimized for accessibility. It is required by law to make your online experience easily accessible for people with disabilities, so they have the same rights online. Are you unsure about the current status of your website and its digital inclusivity? Contact us today to get a full human expert audit to ensure you’re on the path to digital compliance.

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ADA Compliance for Government Websites, Videos, Apps, PDFs

"ADA Compliance for Government Websites, Videos, Apps, PDFs" refers to the process of ensuring that digital content produced by government entities, such as websites, videos, apps, and PDF documents, are accessible to people with disabilities in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) guidelines!

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Assistive Technologies

Assistive Technologies improve website accessibility for users with disabilities. This page offers 10 simple tips to make websites more inclusive and user-friendly. Enhance user experience and ensure equal access with these accessibility strategies!

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ADA Site Compliance

Boosting User Experience: 10 Simple Tips For Making Your Website More Accessible

Your website is not just an attractive piece of real estate you have online. It is a powerful marketing tool that works 24/7 at explaining to the world what you have to offer and give them. But it’s effective only if the website’s accessibility is accessibility is optimal for everyone to access. Otherwise, you may lose top clients because they cannot find the site or interact because of the site design!

And this is the segment of the market suffering from disabilities like motor, visual and cognitive disabilities. They, however, are your target audience, so just by tweaking your website for website compliance, you can tap into and monetize the segment. By boosting your website or mobile app accessibility, it gets more accessible and useful to generate more income. This is where ADA Site Compliance can help, as we are the #1 resource for ensuring ADA website compliance!

What is web accessibility?

Web accessibility ensures all web pages of a website are developed so that everyone, including people with disabilities, can access it. The goal is to provide an equal website experience for those with and without limitations. Website accessibility addresses these primary disabilities:

Visual disabilities include but are not limited to blindness, color blindness, and poor eyesight. It can also have difficulties reading text because of the sunlight and other similar situations.

Auditory impairments include but are not limited to deafness and users who are hard of hearing.

Motor impairments that include but are not limited to muscle slowness, loss of muscle control, and the inability to use hands.

Neurological disabilities that include and are not limited to seizures, cerebral palsy, and epilepsy.

Intellectual and cognitive disabilities that include but are not limited to developmental and learning disabilities like dyslexia and non-verbal learning.

Why make a website accessible?

Not only will you reach a larger audience with an accessible website, but accessibility is also required by law in some industries and countries for the following reasons. A website should be designed to be accessible to:

Provide equal access to everyone

Improve website navigation

Provide multiple and equal avenues of interaction to communicate

Prove your brand commitment to serving your target audience

Protect your website from lawsuits and fines for inaccessibility

How to make your website accessible

If you want to learn how to make your website accessible, then you can get started with the help of these ten tips:

10 Simple Tips For Making Your Website More Accessible

The World Wide Web Consortium developed the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 & 2.1 to create an international standard of web content accessibility. They remove and restrict digital access barriers for people, governments, and organizations through detailed requirements, success criteria, and techniques to follow for website accessibility!

1. Use more helpful alt text or text alternatives for images

Use descriptive alt text for images to support accessibility. Include text alternatives for videos, graphics, and audio content to help convey your message and allow screen reader users to read your content. The alt text should describe the image and its relationship with the content. This improves your online visibility and web compliance!

2. Include captions and text transcripts

Including captions and transcripts for videos makes them accessible to users who can't hear the audio. Avoid using flash, time-based or autoplay content as they can harm those with photosensitive disorders and induce seizures. Display warnings if you must use them on your web page!

3. Have a logical page layout

A logical page layout with proper heading hierarchy, interactive elements placement, and relevant categories makes it easier for users to navigate and access the website's content. Using appropriate headings like H1, H2, and H3 indicate different sections and aid screen reader users in accessing the content!

4. Accessible navigation

Accessible navigation means creating websites that are easy to navigate, with consistent fonts, colors, and designs. Descriptive text for links is important for accessibility, as it helps screen reader users and people using other assistive technologies understand the purpose of the link. Writing helpful and informative error messages is also essential to avoid confusion and frustration for users. Error messages should be specific and use plain language, without overusing them!

5. Keep it simple

To keep your website user-friendly, eliminate unnecessary elements and opt for a clean layout with plenty of white space, a two or three-color scheme, and two fonts. Purposeful graphics that are clickable and insightful are also beneficial. Ensure adequate color contrast, so visitors with visual impairments can read content. To aid users with poor sight, consider alternative means of determining text beyond just color. For example, use colored buttons with appropriate alt tags for screen readers!

6. Mobile-friendly and responsive website

Make a mobile-friendly and responsive website to improve web compliance and digital marketing. Over 50% of web traffic comes from mobile devices, so a mobile-optimized website is essential to avoid visitors abandoning your site. Additionally, Google crawls desktop and mobile websites, so a mobile-friendly site can improve your online visibility. Optimize all desktop information for mobile devices and place buttons in the center of the screen for quick access using thumbs. The layout should be designed for single-touch interaction using one or two hands!

7. Make use of accessible website forms

Website forms are essential for conversions and lead generation, so it's crucial to ensure a user-friendly experience for everyone. Marking all form fields, using larger label sizes, contrasting colors, and simple controls like text boxes and checkboxes can help increase form accessibility. Avoid using placeholder text as labels and provide helper text above the form field for users to understand what to write!

8. Readable site text

The right website text enhances the website user’s experience. This is why font choice plays an integral part in ensuring the readability of the text. Some users may find reading text with curved lines challenging, as the font may be too wide or narrow because of the lines. Always let users enlarge or zoom too small text to read it comfortably if they find it difficult!

9. Do not use color for displaying critical information

There is always the chance of people suffering from color blindness visiting your site. So having important data like graph data in forms and error fields in different colors only make it difficult for users with low vision or impairments to read the data. Instead, it is better to describe the data in a graph using components like colored labels and patterns to make them easily distinguishable to the visitor!

10. Ensure there is an option for keyboard website navigation

This tip suggests adding an option for keyboard navigation on your website to ensure accessibility for users with physical disabilities. Users should be able to navigate interactive elements using the tab key and activate functionality elements like forms, links, and dropdown menus using the enter or space buttons. A logical tab order and visual focus indicators can make the process even smoother. Testing the keyboard navigation is important to ensure it works properly and indicates where the user is on the page!

In conclusion, improving website accessibility is essential for creating an inclusive and user-friendly experience for all visitors, including those with disabilities. By following the ten tips outlined in this guide, you can make your website more accessible and compliant with WCAG guidelines. However, it's also important to periodically check your website's accessibility using tools and professional web developers. At ADA Site Compliance, we can help ensure your website is accessible and provide support to maintain compliance!

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How To Choose Accessible Fonts

The fonts known for providing maximum web accessibility are Times New Roman, Verdana, Cabri, Helvetica, and Tahoma. Other slab serif fonts like Arvo Museo Slab and Rockwell are also accessible!