The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a civil rights law prohibiting discrimination based on disability. This means that everyone accessing public spaces must have equal access regardless of their ability.
The ADA guidelines apply to websites because over one billion people, which makes up about 16% of the global population, cannot access content on a website if it does not comply with the ADA and web accessibility standards.
These guidelines are updated every once in a while to accommodate those with limited abilities. Creating ADA-friendly websites not only improves your content’s reach but also accommodates a broader audience.
Becoming familiar with the ADA compliance checklist for websites can help you make an inclusive website. Let’s uncover some of the best ways to make a website more compliant and inclusive!
What Makes a Website ADA Compliant?
Since the ADA itself does not have specific guidelines for a website, compliance is measured by a website’s adherence to web accessibility standards 508. The WCAG has detailed documentation for the new online approaches to accessibility.
Under section 508, agencies must give disabled employees and members of the public access to information comparable to the access available to others.
This narrows down the website handicap compliance approach into four primary principles: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust (POUR). When a website complies with these four principles, it is said to be ADA compliant.
Perceivable
Perceivable means that users who access information on your website can perceive it easily. Every piece of information, including multimedia and pictures, must include text descriptions, alt texts, captions, and audio versions of content to assist those relying on assistive technology. A perceivable website boosts navigability for differently abled users.
Operable
Operable refers to the user interface and navigation of your website. In simple terms, if users with disabilities cannot navigate your website, it does not comply with the ADA. Therefore, all the available content on your web page must be compatible with keyboard-only setups.
Not every user relies on a mouse. You have to keep these things in mind when designing a website. Another important aspect to take into consideration is that users should not be timed out of your website from reading directions or using specific tools.
Understandable
Applying this principle means that any and all information on your website should be easy to understand.
Readable text with sufficient color contrast, clear paragraphs, appropriate line spacing, and easy-to-understand instructions are all covered under this principle.
Users should be able to understand the web menus, buttons, and layouts with ease.
Robust
Robust means that users can access the content with assistive technology. This helps people with disabilities such as visual impairments. Therefore, all the content available on your website should be compatible with the latest assistive tools.
A Complete Guide To Achieving ADA Compliance for Your Website
Actively addressing website handicap compliance issues is one part of the process. Implementing changes to improve accessibility and conducting accessibility scans are other ways to do this.
If you’re able to implement the accessibility checks from the ADA compliance checklist for websites, you can build a more inclusive website.
Here’s what you should focus on.
1. Keyboard Navigation
The ADA compliance checklist for websites highlights keyboard navigation as an important step. People with motor disabilities cannot access or navigate a website if it doesn’t support keyboard navigation. Therefore, you must make all the elements of the web content accessible to users through the keyboard.
When designing a webpage, you should keep the interactive elements in mind. These include links, buttons, forms, etc.
The users should be able to navigate the site using the Tab and Space keys. They should be able to submit forms using the Enter key. These critical aspects make your content navigable by a keyboard.
2. Alt-Text for Non-Text Content
Non-text content refers to multimedia, photos, videos, icons, etc. Alt text means a concise text description for the multimedia present on a webpage.
A detailed text description for images, icons, videos, and multimedia helps users with screen readers as they are better able to interpret the content present on your website.
Do you know that about 2.2 billion people in the world have near or distant vision impairment? You have to keep this significant number in mind when designing a website to improve your web page’s accessibility.
3. Accessible Forms
If you truly want to achieve ADA compliance for your website, you must focus on accessible forms. Important form elements such as text fields, buttons, and checkboxes must have proper labels to assist screen readers.
Assistive technology should be able to convert necessary information for visually impaired users. For example, consider filling out a form on a website.
A blind user relying on a screen reader wouldn’t be able to identify which field requires what information. In this case, screen readers can rely on labels to guide visually impaired users.
If a form has clear labels like First Name, Last Name, and Email Address next to the input fields, a screen reader can easily read them out loud. This helps the user understand exactly what information they need to enter in each field.
4. Focus Indicators
Focus indicators are visual cues that help users operate a website using a keyboard. A focus indicator highlights the currently active or focused element on the web page. This benefits assistive technologies as they can identify and interact with elements.
To boost web accessibility, focus indicators should be clear and visible on elements like buttons, links, and form fields.
5. Color Contrast
The ADA compliance checklist for websites also emphasizes the importance of color contrast in making websites more accessible to individuals with low vision.
While there may not be a definitive color guide or palette, the guidelines do give a basic idea about color contrasts. For example, web designers should choose a strong contrast between the text and the background for good readability.
Instead of having light text against a light background, you can make simple changes, such as keeping the background light with the dark text.
This striking contrast makes it easier for users to read information. The low contrast ratios negatively affect readability and keep your website from becoming ADA-compliant.
6. Accessible Error Identification
Another important step in achieving ADA compliance for your website is providing accessible error identification. This means that your webpage must display error messages clearly so when users interact with interactive elements, they get clear instructions for corrections.
For example, if a user tries to submit a form without filling in the required Email Address field, an accessible error message should appear near the input field, clearly explaining the issue.
The error message should display: Email Address is required. Please enter a valid email.
The error message should also be accompanied by an ARIA alert or a visible red outline around the field to help users, including those using screen readers, quickly identify and fix the mistake.
7. Resizable Text
Your website must have text that users can resize up to 200% without the content losing its functionality. How does this help?
Users with low vision might want to zoom in on the context. This feature assists those with vision deficiencies and thus is an important part of the ADA compliance checklist for websites.
8. Video and Audio Transcripts
Providing transcripts for video and audio content makes your website more accessible. If your site includes multimedia, it should also include text transcripts and captions to support users with hearing impairments.
These captions should be accurately timed to match the audio and visuals. Well-synchronized captions boost a website’s accessibility.
9. Semantic HTML
Semantic HTML is defined as an element that describes the purpose of an interactive element in both human and machine-readable ways. For example, elements such as <header>, <footer>, <main>, and <article> explain the structure of the website to screen readers and assistive technologies.
This accessibility check makes the content more navigable. For this, your website must have proper headings, structure, and format. The content hierarchy is an important aspect of website handicap compliance.
10. Avoid Automatic Content Changes
The ADA compliance checklist strictly regulates website content, including pop-ups, auto-play elements, and sliders. These features can be challenging to interpret and may disorient users with disabilities.
While the best practice is to avoid them, if they are essential for your website, you must provide controls that allow users to stop, pause, or adjust the timing of these elements. Without these controls, automatic content changes can make navigation and interpretation difficult.
Accessibility Testing Practices
Reducing design flaws can make your website more compliant.
To achieve complete ADA compliance for your website, looking into best practices may help. Let’s look into the best industry practices to boost web accessibility.
Using Automated Testing Tools
Automated testing tools, such as a website accessibility checker, make a major difference. A website accessibility checker identifies all the design flaws that cause issues.
For example, if a picture lacks alt-text, an accessibility checker highlights this or corrects it. However, you shouldn’t always rely on automated testing.
Conducting Manual Testing
Sometimes, if a website accessibility checker misses out on a design flaw, it is important that you check it. Manual testing helps you point out issues that automation may not always highlight.
One of the best practices for making your website more compliant is to test your website using screen readers, navigating through the keyboard, checking for focus indicators, etc. When you practically tick off real-world scenarios, your website becomes more compliant and user-friendly.
Inclusive Usability Testing
Feedback always helps. Using real-world feedback can provide invaluable insights. Automation might miss out on certain problems that users face due to cognitive impairments.
Involving a diverse group when testing your website helps you assess flaws. Fixing them while focusing on feedback makes your website ADA-compliant.
Best Tools for Accessibility Testing
Achieving ADA compliance for your website becomes easier than ever with the best tools. Efficient tools not only highlight the issues but also correct them, making your website more inclusive.
Let’s look into some of the best accessibility testing tools.
Accessibility Spark
Accessibility Spark, a smart tool for analyzing websites through AI and machine learning, helps remediate any and all accessibility violations. This app, once installed, helps you create a website that provides a good experience to everyone, regardless of their abilities.
The implementation and setup process takes just about five minutes. Accessibility Spark runs a quick scan of your website, monitoring it for ADA compliance.
If your website misses forms, alt text for images, or captions for videos, it highlights the problem areas. It not only highlights the problems but also makes over 100 adjustments within five minutes.
Within a few hours, your website can be up and running, all while being ADA-compliant.
WAVE (Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool)
WAVE is another reliable and efficient website accessibility checker that provides detailed visual feedback on your web pages.
It makes it easy for you to spot the accessibility issues. The user-friendly interface is a plus point for those lacking technical knowledge about how these programs run.
aXe (Accessibility Engine)
aXe is an open-source accessibility engine that benefits website accessibility by integrating with Chrome and Firefox.
The automated testing for web accessibility guidelines makes your website compliant. The major plus point is that you can customize aXe; however, it is technical for non-developers.
Wrapping Up
Achieving ADA compliance for your website isn’t just part of the design. It is an ongoing process. As the ADA guidelines evolve to accommodate more and more people, you must also look into accessibility solutions to always remain compliant.
Some design flaws aren’t just a one-time fix. Becoming aware of the ever-changing rules and regulations and making continuous changes is the correct way to approach ADA compliance for a website.
With tools such as Accessibility Spark under your belt, you can make immediate changes to your website to boost accessibility and contribute towards a more inclusive digital space!