The internet is no longer considered a luxury and is used by people of all levels and learning abilities. If your business website isn’t compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 or ADA accessibility, you are neglecting the people with special needs.
We live in a digitally-driven world. So, it’s important to offer web accessibility solutions for people of all abilities to access digital content, products, and services. Read on to discover different ways to improve the accessibility of your website.
What is Website Accessibility?
Accessibility is a term that means where people of all abilities can access, understand, and navigate an online website in the same manner. Many web designers worldwide consider some impairment categories when building web accessibility standards. These include physical, mental, visual, auditory, and cognitive categories.
Websites that follow ADA website accessibility solutions give a sense of freedom and consideration to those with disabilities.
Moreover, web accessibility solutions eliminate every roadblock to digital products and services, making the site available to people of all communities, especially those with disabilities.
Assistive technology has enabled people with and without disabilities to access websites easily. These solutions simplify the access to information on the site. When creating an accessibility website, companies consider four major disabled categories, including:
- Visual
- Auditory
- Speech
- Neurological
What Are Web Accessibility Standards?
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2 is created by the W3C process. The WCAG explains how web accessibility standards can make digital content accessible to everyone.
Web accessibility standards on your website typically include content on a webpage, such as:
- Web content information (such as text, images, color, and sounds)
- Webpage markup and code (such as site structure, responsiveness, etc.)
Your website must adhere to the ADA website accessibility solutions. The web accessibility standards are divided into four basic principles. They are:
Perceivable
The web content and user interface element must be presented in a way that all users can perceive.
Operable
The website user interface elements and navigation must be easy-to-operate. It means users can access the website through a keyboard or other device.
Understandable
The web content and operation of the user interface should be readable to people of all abilities. It includes page structure and visual content on your website. +
Robust
The content on the website must be interpreted in a way that a wide variety of users can understand it. Thus, your site should be easily interpreted by all consumers, especially assistive technology users.
9 Navigation Types to Improve Website Accessibility
Web accessibility standards and web usability go hand-in-hand. Accessibility makes the website accessible to people of all abilities. On the other hand, usability improves the design and structure of the site.
You can improve the accessibility of your website by implementing different types of navigation. We have compiled a list of common navigation approaches that can enhance the usability and accessibility of your website.
1. Add a Site Map
A site map is an ideal way to improve the accessibility and usability of your website. It displays a complete overview (table of content) of the overall structure of your website. In addition, it incorporates all the site sections and links into the categorized format.
Including a site map will make your website compliant with the ADA website accessibility of the WCAG 2.0 (success criteria 2.4.5). Finally, a sitemap will help and guide the visitors to where they want to go.
2. Clear Navigation System
Integrating a clear navigation system into your website is a crucial element of the W3C’s accessibility guidelines. Using a navigation system includes placing menus, pop-ups, and submenus in an ideal place, which is easily accessible to the users.
The navigation system must also comply with the performance of assistive technology users.
3. Use Accessibility Assessment Tool
A great way to review the accessibility of your website is through an automated accessibility assessment tool. It can help you address and make important accessibility issues on your website. This tool will highlight which area of your website needs accessibility solutions, including low contrast visuals, invalid sitemap, wrong markup, and much more.
4. Add Semantic Information by HTML Markup
The most powerful and valuable feature of HTML is its ability to structure any content. Be it a stuffed webpage or short-form content, HTML understands the context of information, allowing users to perceive it easily.
Using HTML markup to add semantic information to your website is a great way to improve accessibility. The HTML markup will structure and organize your website content with the help of h1, h2,..h5, bullet points, paragraphs, articles, listicles, and sections.
5. Include an Alt Text to Visual Content
Another great method to make your website more accessible to all communities is by including an Alt text. It’s one of the most recommended ways that allow visitors and screen readers from assistive technology to display information about visual content (images, videos, gifs). An ideal alt text contains a description of 10-12 words.
6. Feed Captions in Embedded Videos
Captions and alt texts are crucial tools for website accessibility. Adding captions in your embedded videos can help users with hearing and auditory difficulty access them. To meet the basic web accessibility standards, captions of 20-30 words should be synchronized with the videos.
In addition to captions, you can also provide two options to the viewers. There are two types of captions for embedded videos:
- Closed Captions. They can be turned on and off. They are often downloaded as a separate file for a video.
- Open Captions. These are fed directly into the video track and can not be turned off.
7. Don’t Forget Keyboard Functionality
Assistive technology users, particularly those with neurological and physical impairment, utilize a keyboard to browse a website. You must test your website compatibility with the keyboard. Using “tab” or “tab + shift + keys” is a common way to navigate your site’s web pages.
8. Incorporate Text Transcripts
To further improve the website accessibility of your website, add text transcripts to the real-time media. It’s ideal for including synchronized text captions and transcripts to audio and video files on your website.
9. Device Compatibility
Most people browse websites through smartphones. Test your web pages for mobile phone compatibility to deliver a satisfactory experience to your users.
Moreover, you can run some automated tests to assess the accessibility and usability of your website on mobile devices. For example, tests like page speed, response time, and user experience should be performed.
All these above types of navigation are best to enhance the accessibility of your website. Thus, evaluate the user behavior on your website. See at what part of your website people are getting stuck and returning, and then choose any of the above navigation types to improve their experience.
Why Comply with the ADA Website Accessibility Solutions?
Life seems incomplete without internet access. So it’s important to deploy accessibility solutions on your website. Doing so makes sure people belonging to all abilities can access your website. Whether you have an online blogging site or running an eCommerce business, improving website accessibility will advantage you in countless ways.
For instance, complying with ADA website accessibility will minimize your possibility of falling into a legal fiasco.
With the increasing empathy and recognition of learning and development disabilities, the last thing a company wants is to seem insensitive. So, being a complete disservice to people with disabilities can significantly impact your brand’s social image.
If you avoid complying with the ADA website accessibility solutions, you miss a significant number of users willing to interact with your site. These people usually go away because of your inaccessible website or due to your image in the market of “ADA non-compliant.”
Thus, taking an extra initiative to meet web accessibility standards can make your brand stand out as a responsible and considerable one.
As the WHO (World Health Organization) surveyed, around 56.7 million people are living with some disability and impairment. If your website doesn’t offer accessibility to facilitate these people, you stop a huge chunk of traffic from reaching your website.
Hence, making your website compliant with the ADA website accessibility guidelines will ultimately increase your company’s conversion rates and sales profits.
Best Tool to Improve Website Accessibility: Accessibility Spark
If you’re looking to improve the accessibility and usability of your website, opting for Accessibility Spark can be a great step. It’s an all-in-one solution to meet all the necessary web accessibility standards.
Whether you’re looking to facilitate people with disabilities or want to enhance the usability of your website, Accessibility spark offers a range of valuable solutions to meet your site needs.
Accessibility Spark is compliant with WCAG & ADA website accessibility standards. It is designed with Artificial Intelligence combined with Assistive Technology to help people with disabilities navigate websites without any difficulty.
The features of this app completely meet the necessary web accessibility standards. It also provides helpful recommendations to make your website more accessible.
Final Verdict
Accessibility solutions have become a buzzword in this data-driven world. Unfortunately, if your website doesn’t adhere to the primary web accessibility standards, you’re missing out on significant user traffic.
Online websites often challenge those with some disability. However, thanks to assistive technology, accessibility solutions are now much easier to implement to make a website more accommodating to the users.
Implementing the navigation types explained here can set your website for long-term success and high performance. Moreover, these approaches will ensure people of all abilities get a satisfactory user experience.