Why Should You Scan Your Website Using Compliance Checker?

ADA compliance has grown more crucial with each passing year. So much so that it has become necessary for many online web pages to be ADA-compliant. As a result, using a website ADA compliance checker has become more common in the last few decades. But should you scan your website using an ADA compliance checker?

We are here to answer that question. And help you find out whether using an ADA compliance checklist is a good fit for you and your website.

Why You Should Use An ADA Compliance Checker

With the changing rules and regulations for what ADA compliance means, ensuring your site is ADA compliant is becoming more crucial. But why should you use an ADA compliance checker?

1. It Gives You A Clear Idea About Your ADA Compliance Level

One of the major selling points of using an ADA compliance checker is that it can give you a clear idea about where your website stands. And the changes you need to make to your website?

It can be challenging to keep up with the constantly changing rules and regulations that make up the standards of ADA compliance. Thus, by using an ADA compliance checker, you can save yourself some time and effort. And quickly find out issues and areas that require adjustment on your website.

2. Avoid Penalties

At present, all up-to-date pages require, at the very least, a compliance grade of A. The highest grade is AAA. As a result, many very prominent brands and companies have fallen into lawsuits due to a lack of ADA compliance.

Thus, we can see the importance of maintaining a compliant site. So, an ADA compliance checker may come in handy if you want to avoid these consequences.

3. Attracting A Larger Audience

A website that lacks proper ADA compliance is missing a large audience of users. Resulting in millions upon millions of lost customers or sales due to the inability to use the website properly. It is due to the website not being designed for individuals with disabilities. Thus, it makes it quite difficult for them to use.

The checker can allow you to quite easily see the issues with your current website. Including accessibility issues and how you can make your website more accessible. This allows you to gain access to a new audience and group of potential customers.

4. Helps With Search Engine Optimization

Not only does the checker allow you to appeal to a much larger audience, but it can even improve the reach of your website. Screen readers are an accessibility tool used by individuals who are visually impaired. These screen readers act similarly to Search Engine crawlers that scour through pages.

As a result, if your website meets the requirement of ADA compliance, then it is equally likely to improve your page’s SEO. Thus, the checker not only acts as a tool to make your website ADA compliant but also as a checker for Search Engine Optimization. As a result, it increases the reach of your website.

5. Improve Your Website Reputation

With the help of this checker, you have managed to appeal to a new audience and increase your website’s reach. However, that is not the only reason to use this checker. Adopting a more accessible approach can also help spread your website’s reputation.

By making your website more accessible with the help of a checker, you can garner the faith of your user base; these changes and adjustments to accessibility signal to users that you care about their experience on your site. It results in return users and an increase in word of mouth as you build a reputation for your website as an inclusive and welcoming page.

6. Improvement Of The User Interface

One of the checker’s leading roles is ensuring that the user interface and experience are smooth and usable. As a result, the checker can help to improve the overall website usability. Thus, by using the checker properly, you can make your website ADA compliant and more usable along the way.

Conclusion

An ADA compliance checker has more uses than just meeting the standard set by the ADA and can help your website grow and reach a larger audience. ADA checklists can give you an idea of what you need to do going forward and what changes your website needs to make.

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