10 Examples Of ADA Compliant Accessible Web Design

In this modern era of technology, everyone has access to the internet. As a result, every business nowadays has a website. This is why it has become important to have an ADA compliant website. So, what are 10 examples of ADA compliant accessible web design?

There are a lot of examples of ADA-compliant website development. For instance, contrast and color work together to make the website easier to read. Labelling boxes properly makes it easier to see. These are some of the examples followed during ADA compliant website development.

You need to know the ADA compliant website law. It is also important to see if your website meets the standards. Reading the full article will allow you to learn more about these examples.

What Is ADA Compliance?

ADA Compliance stands for Americans with Disabilities Act Standards for Accessible Design. This law states that all information technology must be accessible to people with disabilities.

Many ADA companies help with consulting to meet these standards. You can learn more about ADA website laws on the internet. Your website must meet the standards because it will help avoid lawsuits.

10 Examples of ADA Compliant Web Design

You must know the common terminology that is used. Because these terminology definitions can help you build the best website possible. Here are 10 examples of ADA compliant web design –

Contrast

Your website should maintain a proper contrast ratio. For instance, having a high-contrast color on a bright background will make it harder to read.

Some people have visual impairments. They might find it difficult to read the text without proper contrast. WCGA 2.0 requires a website to follow a contrast ratio of 4:5:1.

Color

People who are colorblind do not see the same way we do. So, you cannot rely on color alone. You need to employ other measures to increase readability.

Employing different accessible design tactics can help with that. This will help users identify website elements properly.

Labelling

Labelling forms are important. You should provide descriptive labelling in all fields. For example, if your website has a register page, it will ask for visitors’ information.

Placing the labels inside will cause issues for people with visual impairments. As a result, it will be much more difficult to read.

Keyboard Navigation

People with mobility issues or disabilities may find it easier to use a keyboard than a mouse. Hence, designing your website to be properly navigated using a keyboard is a must.

By providing keyboard navigation, you are ensuring a more inclusive experience. Your website must also feature color-changing fonts if a link is active.

Table of Contents

If your website contains large amounts of information, a table of contents will help. Your website needs to be digestible.

Instead of making the structure complex, you can design your website with a table of contents. This will make finding specific information easier for the reader.

Properly Structured

You must make information easy to understand. People might find your website too overwhelming if it is not properly structured.

You should design the website to properly communicate what it is about. The search box, labels, styles, and headings must be formatted in a uniform manner.

Breadcrumb Trail

Breadcrumb trail helps people visualize how website information is structured. Because it helps people with disabilities navigate easier.

Your website should not force users to go back to the home page to continue browsing. Users should be able to visit any page, then navigate from there to other pages.

Design for Different Devices

Your website must have different designs for different devices. For instance, visiting a website from a phone should show the website’s handheld device UI.

Some might find it easier to use a phone than a PC due to their disabilities. So, it is imperative to have different designs for different platforms.

Headings and Spacing

Your website must have simple headings and proper spacing. This helps with the readability of the website.

Using clear headings will help people understand what the writing is about. Using proper spacing within the texts will help declare a clearer relationship.

Alternative Texts

Many people rely on assistive technologies. Screen readers are one such example. This helps people with visual impairments read texts that are displayed.

The use of appropriate tags and alternative texts on your website is a must. These help screen readers read the texts.

Conclusion

So, now you know what are 10 examples of ADA compliant web design. You should also understand why it is important to meet these standards. Thank you for reading through the entire article.

Working on a website can be difficult. Adding new media and updating pages is chore, even though you know your company website needs to evolve and become more accessible to the many users you are trying to reach. Maybe when you first built it, accessibility wasn’t even really discussed. But now you’ve taken a step back, looked at your customer base with a desire to include everyone and you’ve realized just how important it is to make your site accessible. However, the thought of building a robust site that can do all the things you want it to do is overwhelming.

What is Web Accessibility

A practice of designing and coding the website in order to provide complete compatibility in accessing it by people with disabilities. In addition, it is a way to improve search engine optimization only an ADA Compliant Web Designer will help you to make your website Compliant. Is your website compatible? By going through the checklist below, you can get the answer.

Assessing Current Web Pages and Content

The website must include a feature like a navigation link at the top of the page. These links have a bypass mechanism such as a “skip navigation” link. This feature directs screen readers to bypass the row of navigation links and start at the web page content. It is beneficial for people who use screen readers to avoid to listen to all the links each time they jump to a new page.
All the links should be understandable when taken out of the context. For example, images without alternative text and links without worded as “click here”.
All the graphics, maps, images, and other non-text content must provide text alternatives through the alt attribute, a hidden/visible long description.
All the documents posted on the website should available in HTML or another accessible text-based format. It is also applicable to other formats like Portable Document Format (PDF).
The online forms on the website should be structured so assistive technology can identify, describe and operate the controls and inputs. By doing this, people with disabilities can review and submit the forms.
If the website has online forms, the drop-down list should describe the information instead of displaying a response option. For instance, “Your Age” instead of “18-25”.
If the website has data charts and tables, they should be structured so that all data cells are associated with column and row identifiers.
All the video files on the website must have audio descriptions (if necessary). This is for the convenience of blind people or for having a visual impairment disability.
All the video files on the website must have synchronized captions. People with hearing problems or deaf can access these files conveniently.
All the audio files on the website should have synchronized captions to provide access to people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
All web pages should be designed so that they can be viewed using visitors’ web browser and operating system settings for color and font.

About Website Accessibility Policy and Procedures

One must have a written policy on website accessibility.
The website accessibility policy must be posted on the website at a location where it can be easily found.
The procedure should be developed to ensure that content is not added to the website until it has been made accessible.
It should be confirmed that the website manager has checked the code and structure of all new web pages before they are posted.
While adding the PDFs to the website, these should be accessible. Also, the text-based versions of the documents should be accessible at the same time as PDF versions.
Make sure that the in-house and contractor staff has received the information about the website accessibility policy and procedure to confirm the website accessibility.
It should be confirmed that in-house and contractor staff has received appropriate training on how to ensure the accessibility of the website.
The website should have a specific written plan if it contains inaccessible content. Also, it should include timeframes in place to make all of the existing web content accessible.
A complete plan to improve website accessibility should be posted along with invited suggestions for improvement.
The homepage should include easily locatable information that includes contact details like telephone number and email address. This is useful for reporting website accessibility problems and requesting accessibility services with information.
A website should have procedures in place to assure a quick response to the visitors with disabilities who have difficulty in accessing information or services available on the website.
Feedback from people who use a variety of assistive technologies is helpful in ensuring website accessibility. So make sure to ask disability groups representing people to provide feedback on the accessibility of your website.
Testing the website using a product available on the internet is helpful, These tools are of free cost and check the accessibility of a website. They may not identify all accessibility issues and flag issues that are not accessibility problems. However, these are, nonetheless, a helpful way to improve website accessibility.

Checklist of Action Items for Improving the Accessibility of a Website

In addition, while considering the above suggestions, the following checklist initially prepared by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for Federal Agencies provides further guidelines on ways to make websites more accessible for persons with disabilities.

This practical advice, as well as another checklist, are available at:

Satisfying all of these items does not necessarily mean that a website complies with ADA, but it will improve the website’s accessibility and decrease the risk of litigation. Again, an Expert or Web Accessibility Consulting & Services provider should be engaged to conduct a comprehensive review of your website.

Nothing brings you closer to reality than actually facing it. This is the premise of my latest attempt to spread awareness about Web Accessibility.

For better understand, here is a link in which a practical example is shown to make the websites’ user experience better by following the guidelines. Also, it tells the issues affecting various users on the internet with solutions.

You can make your website ADA compliant in an easy way by consulting the professionals, who can do this job effortlessly. Also, you can get a quick website audit from To Be ADA Compliant that offers complete web accessibility consulting & services in California, USA.

Resource: https://dev.to/chinchang/an-interactive-and-practical-introduction-to-web-accessibility-22o1