Web Accessibility Guidelines For People With Disabilities

If you happen to be an owner of a website then chances are you are losing customers who are disabled because your website might not be accessible for them. So you need to make sure that your website is as inclusive as possible. To help you make your website accessible to all, this article will talk about how you can ADA for websites.

Using appropriate text size, color, a simple interface, and alt tags can make the web accessible for people with disabilities. It is not just a law but also a great marketing strategy.

Your websites are visited by a lot of people with different disabilities daily. Without proper accessibility, you might lose potential customers and even fail to provide service equally to all. Let us have a look at some web accessibility guidelines for disabled people.

Guidelines To Make Website Accessible For Disabled People

The ADA for websites makes it easier to ensure equality and accessibility for all people. Your website should follow the ADA guidelines to make yours an ADA accessibility company. Here are some ways to make your website accessible to disabled people.

Color Contrast And Text Size

Old people or people with visual impairments might find it difficult to access your website if it has fancy color contrast and text size. If your background is dark, you should consider having your content written in a light color so that it’s easier to read for users.

In the case of text size, if your content is written in a small size like 8, 10, it’s very difficult for users with disabilities to read it. A minimum of 14 for text size is recommended by the experts to make the content accessible to all.

Alt tags

Alternative tags are some letters inside the code when you design a website. It helps people with visual problems or disabilities to hear what the image is by using a machine. So make sure to include alt tags on your website to provide a better service to your visitors with disabilities.

Subtitles

Now, videos are just pictures, but what good does it do if you can’t hear what it is saying? Using subtitles or captions in videos makes it easier for people with hearing imparities to know about the video.
It also helps people who have visual imparities to hear what the video is about. The screen reader reads it out for them, offering them a better understanding.

Simple Interface

A fancy or complex interface design makes it hard for people with disabilities to access the website. A simple and easy-to-use interface provides a better experience for all users who visit the website.

You can enlarge any clickable assets on your website to make it easier for people with physical disabilities to navigate. It is hard for them to navigate to smaller assets that need good accuracy using the mouse.

Optimization

Optimization is the process of making websites, mobile apps, and online games compatible
with screen readers for all users. Screen readers are software programs that assist people with disabilities in interacting with technology. For example, a screen reader will read all text on your website and even show Web pages as they were designed to appear to the user.

Screen readers can also work with mobile apps that have cameras, GPS functionality, and other features that may not be accessible to blind users.

Formatting

Formatting is the process of making websites compatible with alternative keyboards and alternative mice to accommodate people with disabilities. Alternative keyboards are used by individuals who have a hard time typing on a regular keyboard.

Different types of alternative keyboards include ones that work on touchscreens or those that use head-motion technology. Alternative mice provide the user a way to control the cursor on the computer screen or mobile device.

Tools

There are different tools available to check if your website offers access to people with disabilities. Different tools provide different services and are best for certain purposes. Make sure you choose the right one and check your website accessibility for people with disabilities. We also have an ADA website compliance checklist to help you figure out if your website is ada compliant.

Conclusion

Making your website accessible for handicapped people is a must, not only for the sake of the law but also for your responsibility. It makes sure every person, despite their disabilities, can access your website and meet their needs.

Now that you are done reading this article, you should know about ADA for websites. Thanks for stopping by!

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