ADA Website Compliance Checklist 2022: Everything You Need to Know

The ADA compliance website checklist is something all business owners need to follow. And although there are many good reasons for it, two of them matter most. First, you want to ensure people with disabilities can access your site the same way as their peers. And second, you won’t get sued.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has been in effect for more than 30 years. Yet, it doesn’t state a strict list of elements. But the rule is simple- a blind or deaf person should find help navigating your site. To make that possible, web admins use various methods- alt tags, screen reader, voice help, and such.

Failure to follow the Americans with Disabilities Act can result in a lawsuit for the owner. Plus, it makes your business look unprofessional and insincere towards a certain group. So, read on to know how you can make your website ADA compliant.

Introduction To Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

ADA for websites became relevant in 2010. That year, the justice department passed the ADA Standards for Accessible Design. Before that, ADA compliance was mandatory for public transport and buildings only. For example, public buildings have sloping staircases compatible with wheelchairs. And elevators have braille imprints on the keys, etc.

But, after 2010, this extended to the realm of electric and information technology. According to the act, if you have a business under Title 1 and Title 3, you must create an ADA-compliant website.

Businesses under Title 1 use at least 15 full-time staff and conduct business 20 or more weeks a year. Title 3 businesses are the ‘Public Accommodations.’ Such as hotels or banks.

So, if you own either of these businesses, you must ensure they follow ADA. Otherwise, your might face legal consequences.

The ADA defines businesses under Title 1 and 3. Other than that, there isn’t a strict ADA compliance website checklist. So, web admins use common knowledge and experience. For example, you can use specific WordPress plug-ins to increase WordPress ADA compliance.

So, a law-defined ADA compliance website checklist is not available. But web admins can use a general set of requirements as a reference point. You can follow these to create an ADA-compliant website. Learn about them in the discussion below.

ADA Compliance Checklist For Websites

You must make your website operable, perceivable, and understandable to all users. Plus, you have to make sure it runs on all the different kinds of devices available. And that’s the basis of ADA for websites. Now, let’s look at the ways to establish them.

Navigation: Most websites focus on mouse navigation. But people with disabilities often find it hard to operate a website with a mouse. So, as a webmaster, you must focus on making your website operable through the keyboard.

Alt Tags: The content on your website contain lots of images. And a disabled person will not be able to view them like the general population. So, it would help if you created ‘Alt Tags’ for them. These tags will describe the content via text or speech for the people who cannot view them. Plus, it also helps with SEO.

Text Transcripts: A deaf person cannot hear your website’s video and audio files. So, it would help if you created text transcripts for these contents. As a result, the disabled person can still enjoy the benefit of your content.

Consistent layout: Make sure the layout of your website is well-organized. That means a clear distinction between the various elements on your web page. For example, menus, options, links, call-to-action-buttons, and others. Users should not have difficulty differentiating between these essential elements on your website.

Avoid flashing content: Some videos and GIF images flash or use sudden jolts of bright light. And these can elicit epileptic reactions in some people. So, avoid any content that flashes more than three times in one second.

WordPress ADA Compliance: You can use various plug-ins to increase WordPress ADA compliance. For instance, WP Accessibility Helper, UserWay, Accessibility Widget, and others. These plug-ins can make your WP website more usable for disabled visitors.

For an in depth analysis of the extent of ADA compliance of your website, be sure to download our ADA compliance checklist.

Conclusion

Remember, lack of compliance can land you in costly lawsuits. But that shouldn’t be the only motivation. Instead, web admins should focus on ADA compliance out of a sheer sense of responsibility towards an unfortunate group of people who require our active support

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