Unlocking the Benefits of Web Accessibility and ADA Compliance for Your Small Business

As a small business owner, having the right web presence and making sure it’s compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) can be a huge challenge. Web accessibility and ADA compliance are two key topics for small businesses to factors in when trying to build a successful online presence. Failing to comply with web accessibility and related ADA standards can result in costly liabilities, frustrated potential customers and issues with search engine optimization (SEO).

What is Web Accessibility and ADA compliance?

Web accessibility refers to an online space that is accessible to everyone, regardless of disability, gender, age, race or other protected class. ADA compliance relates to broader rules and regulations regarding access for persons with disabilities. Successful web accessibility and ADA compliance means that people with disabilities can effectively use the digital content and services the same as those without disabilities and that the same standards of equal access apply.

Why is Web Accessibility and ADA Compliance important for Small Businesses?

Small businesses need to be aware that they are required to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and may also be subject to requirements under state and local laws. Failing to comply can result in costly liabilities, frustrated potential customers, issues with search engine optimization (SEO) and lost customers.

It’s important to remember that ADA compliance is not just a legal obligation, it’s also an opportunity. By making sure your website is ADA compliant, you send out the message that your business is accommodating and welcoming to customers of every type. Many customers find themselves more likely to do business with companies that are committed to being accessible and open to people of all abilities.

And ensuring that your website is accessible and ADA compliant can also improve your results when it comes to SEO. Search engines take into account the accessibility of webpages when making their algorithms, so websites that are more accessible to those with disabilities will receive more traffic from search engine results.

How to make sure your website is ADA compliant?

Making sure that your website is in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is no small feat. But there are a few steps you can take to make sure you’re taking the right steps.

Make sure your website’s content is easily accessible. This means providing closed captions and transcripts for audio and video content, having alternate text for images, and providing other options to use the content.

Pay attention to design and development. Making sure the design and development of your website is ADA compliant involves a few specific steps. This includes things like making sure text is viewable to those using screen readers, allowing sufficient image contrast and font sizes, and making sure all elements of your webpage are keyboard accessible.

Audit regularly. It is important to regularly audit your website for ADA compliance. This will help ensure that you are in compliance with the ADA’s standards and also help you identify any potential issues.

These steps will help ensure that your website is up to standard when it comes to web accessibility and ADA compliance, giving you one less thing to worry about and helping you better serve your customers.

Conclusion

Web accessibility and ADA compliance is an important part of running a successful small business website. Ignoring these requirements can result in costly liabilities and frustrated customers, but taking the steps to make sure your website is up to date can make a world of difference when it comes to SEO and customer satisfaction. Make sure you’re paying attention to design and development, as well as content, and audit regularly to make sure you’re doing all you can to provide accessible and welcoming websites.

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