The Importance of the ADA Compliance for Websites
ADA stands for the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. It’s a civil rights law that prohibits businesses, landlords, and others from discriminating against a person based on a disability. In addition to curtailing discrimination and providing legal recourse when it does occur, the Act has been instrumental in helping disabled persons gain access to places and events. For instance, they’ve ushered in the use of wheelchair ramps and parking spaces for the disabled, which has greatly improved the lives of millions of Americans, not to mention disabled visitors from numerous countries around the globe.
ADA-Compliant Web Design
To explain it in the simplest of terms, an ADA-compliant website is one that’s been designed for all visitors. Although disabled persons may have certain limitations to overcome, the site should lessen those limitations through a variety of design and function aspects. Since 2016, the accepted guidelines have been those outlined in the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines). This is a win-win for everyone involved – disabled persons get accessible websites and business increase their web traffic.
Evaluate Your Current Website
The first thing you should do is to evaluate the state of your current website to make sure that it’s ADA-compliant. If you’re not sure, refer to the ADA guidelines and then use a website rating program to assess your website. They’re basically looking for sites to be:
Use ADA-Compliant Graphics
Images are a huge part of most websites and are very effective in attracting both new and existing users. Pictures that you choose should be fun and vibrant, but be sure not to include a lot of flashing in the images. With certain users, images that flash more than three times per second can cause seizures, so these must be avoided at all costs. Also, make sure that you’re adding text to the graphics, which we’ll get into below.
Use Readable Fonts on the Site
Strange fonts may have been cool when the World Wide Web first launched, but now they’re just annoying and difficult to read. A few examples of easy-to-read fonts include Georgia, Open Sans, and Quicksand. You should also avoid placing written text over starkly contrasting backgrounds or extremely similar backgrounds. It’s best to go with a light background and a dark font.
Add Alt Text to Each Image
The addition of alt text to an image – which is a description of that image – is often used in creative marketing endeavors because they increase the view-ability of your website through search engines. For the purposes of ADA compliance, the alt text that you enter can be spoken aloud for the visually impaired so that they can experience the images you’re using, too.
Logical Appearance and Navigation
You always want your website to operate clearly and logically. Your site should work in a predictable way so that even those with disabilities don’t have difficulty going from one place to the next. You should also include clear labels for all functionalities. For example, if your site utilizes pop-up screens, there should be a very clear “X” in the corner so the person can easily close it.
Code with Standard HTML Tags
A lot of you may be wondering what the “robust” requirement of ADA compliance means. This refers to code that is readable by an assistive reader. Primarily, you must use standard HTML tags in your coding. Also, if you have any documents on your site, you should provide them in a text-based format even if a PDF is already available. That’s because software that reads text aloud for the visually impaired can’t decipher complex image documents.
Website users often take the use of a mouse for granted, but developers must be aware that some disabled users don’t have the dexterity or functionality to grip such an input device. This is the primary function of the “operable” category and can be achieved by making sure that your site can be navigated with only a keyboard. If your site has videos, a keyboard should be able to pause, rewind / fast forward, and slow down the content.
Stay Up-to-Date on ADA Changes
Although plenty of the ADA website compliance regulations have been around for a while and are here to stay, they’re definitely never stagnant. Changes are made as more needs are recognized and as new technologies are introduced that assist disabled persons. Stay aware of any alterations that are made to the ADA requirements and make the appropriate changes to your site as they emerge.
Contact P3 Agency for ADA Website Compliance
ADA website compliance in Clearwater is an important thing to achieve so that your site is not just in compliance for legal reasons, but to help ensure that every visitor to your site has the best experience possible. As you can see from our ADA website compliance checklist, the P3 Agency can help make sure that happens with our web design services. We can also assist you with lead generation, brand development, local SEO services, enhanced web development, and more. If you have questions about our inbound marketing system, ADA website compliance checklist, or free marketing assessment, call us at (800) 515-9422.