According to data by CDC, one in four Americans has some type of disability.
The most prevalent form of disability is mobility, with nearly 15% of the population having issues walking or climbing stairs. Other disability types, such as cognition, hearing, and vision, affect between 5% and 10% of US adults each.
People with disabilities face challenges in everyday functioning. From difficulties arising from society’s attitudes and poor systemic organization to physical and communication barriers, the disabled encounter obstacles across the board.
Technology, especially web technology, has entered the list of predicaments for the disabled in recent years. A synonym of accessibility to information, entertainment and connectivity for the able-bodied, the Internet realm is not that welcoming to the disabled.
A 2020 research found that 98% of the world’s top million websites aren’t fully accessible to people with disabilities. Thus, it’s unsurprising that Americans with disabilities are three times more likely to never go online compared to those without a disability.
Lately, there have been increased efforts in making both the offline and online world equally accessible to everyone. For example, in 1990, the US Congress enacted the ADA, the Americans with Disabilities Act, a civil rights law prohibiting discrimination based on disability.
The ADA initially focused on transforming the physical world so that it meets the needs of disabled people. Yet, as the Internet’s pervasiveness into each aspect of our lives proved relentless, the anti-discriminatory act had to widen its application to the digital environment as well.
In this article, we will be discussing what the Americans with Disabilities Act entails in terms of website accessibility and how you can make your web location ADA compliant.
What Is ADA?
The Americans with Disabilities Act is a civil rights act passed by the United States Congress on July 26th, 1990, purposed to protect the rights and prevent discrimination of people with mental and physical disabilities.
Many of today’s equal-access accommodations, such as wheelchair access ramps and accessible restroom facilities, became a customary element of the majority of American workplaces and public areas thanks to the ADA.
However, when in 2019, a blind man sued Domino’s Pizza for not being able to order via their website, the US Supreme Court ruled that the anti-discriminatory act isn’t reserved for brick-and-mortar stores alone but includes the digital realm of apps and websites too.
Even though the 2019 trial ended favorably for the online accessibility efforts, the ADA text nowhere explicitly addresses its coverage of web compliance.
The act obliges every “place of public accommodation” to provide equal access, but whether websites and apps fall under the scope remains elusive.
Although websites are still not mandatory to be ADA compliant, the 2019 justices’ decision marked the beginning of a new era in many aspects of the digital age.
Nevertheless, there is a more standardized initiative to transform the online world into an accessible place for people with disabilities.
The ADA vs. the WCAG
The WCAG, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, represents a set of web accessibility guidelines recommendations originally published in 1999. It was outlined by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which is the main international standards organization for the Internet.
The WCAG includes guidelines on how to make web content more accessible to people with disabilities. By ‘content,’ the WCAG documents include text, images, sounds, code that defines website structure and presentation, etc.
For the most part, the WCAG aims to provide a set standard for web content accessibility that meets the needs of individuals globally.
Yet, in certain countries, such as the UK, adhering to the guidelines is not mandatory, though it could mean the uncompliant website could get sued for discrimination. In 2017, the Federal Court in Florida ruled that lack of WCAG compliance equaled ADA violation.
While their form – ADA is a US civil rights act and WCAG is an international set of web accessibility guidelines – and some of their policies differ, both ADA and WCAG strive to make information online accessible to everyone.
With the latest version of the WCAG – WCAG 2.2 – scheduled to go live by the end of 2021, you should ensure your website meets the current standards by running it through a web accessibility evaluation tool.
If your website already follows the WCAG guidelines, or you’re aware of the issues and are set to fix them, it’s time you learn more about the ADA and what the act has to say about web accessibility.
How Can Your Website Achieve ADA Compliance
Guidelines for meeting ADA in terms of web accessibility permeate different aspects of a website’s design, development, and content.
These site elements are equally crucial in enabling your web visitors with disabilities to effortlessly access and enjoy your website’s offers and transform into loyal customers.
Design Made for Everyone
Accessible design won’t help only people with disabilities but will make the overall user journey more straightforward and seamless.
Let’s see which design practices reflect the ADA guidelines.
Color Combinations
Around 4% of the global population suffers from some form of color blindness. For them, websites that communicate their message by colors alone mean failing to perceive that information.
As colors don’t suffice, use patterns, fills, sizing, borders, icons, or whitespace to communicate. Ensure strong contrast between the text and its backgrounds by avoiding a light font color on a light background.
Equally challenging is the too-sharp contrast of a pale font on a black background.
Easy-To-Read Fonts
Sans serif fonts – such as Georgia, Open Sans, and Quicksand – are the easiest to read due to their lack of decorative markings.
Stick to a maximum of two fonts, a font size of at least 12 font and use bold for emphasis.
Developing an ADA Compliant Website
Addressing accessibility issues at the development phase implies writing a clean, standardized code with an extra feature or two to make your website a haven for everyone.
Form and Table Labeling
While coding, use the <label> element for each website field to ensure people who use screen readers can access the name of each field.
In case the user needs to know crucial information about a certain field, e.g., that a password must contain eight characters, don’t put the info as a placeholder in a field, but rather a text next to it.
Use Standard HTML Tags
Standard HTML tags make your website compliant not just to ADA or WCAG but also in line with all the best SEO practices.
All website documents should be in a text format, even if it’s available in PDF as well.
Identify the Website’s Language
Besides the standard HTML tags mentioned earlier, make sure to state the language attribute in the header code. HTML language attribute helps text reading software to function seamlessly.
Enable Keyboard Navigation
Keyboard navigation is rather common nowadays in computer programs and software, yet not so on the web. Internet users with visual and motor disabilities need keyboard navigation to go around through your website.
From tabs and menus, buttons and fields, all site elements should be navigable via keyboard shortcuts. When keyboard navigation is on, you should provide users with an indicator showing where on the page they are.
Make your CTAs accessible, with clearly labeled text on the button itself.
Remember that all website interactions are available via keyboard.
Accessible Content
How can your content meet the needs of people with visual, hearing, motor, and cognitive disabilities with a few simple steps? Find out next.
Structured and Readable Texts
Dividing an article using heading tags and writing easy-to-read content is one of the basic copywriting practices. For readers with cognitive disabilities, good structure and readability make your content easy to digest.
Bulleted lists, summary sections, and bolded keywords help easier text scanning for people who find reading difficult yet ensure they receive the information.
Straightforward Anchor Text
When linking to other internal pages of your website, or other web locations, avoid using “click here” as the anchor text. Instead, use descriptive link text, e.g., “Chicago web design companies” to clearly state where the users will be transferred upon clicking.
Accessible Images and Videos
Images should have alt text, a short piece of text that objectively and neutrally describes the image. Screen readers read alt texts when reading through a text for users with disabilities, thus allowing them to get the idea of the text as a whole.
When it comes to the accessibility of videos, make sure your videos have subtitles. Subtitles are beneficial not only to people with hearing disabilities but also very useful for crowded settings or people who don’t have a way to listen to them at a particular time.
Graphics should not flash more than three times per second as they could induce a seizure in your visitors.
Should Your Website Go ADA Compliant?
As we’ve mentioned earlier, ADA is not a mandatory web accessibility standard. However, failing to meet the requirements could lead to bad publicity and legal expenses, as more and more people with disabilities decide to take legal action against brands that aren’t ADA compliant.
On the other hand, making your content accessible to everyone will help boost your brand image, minimize legal risk, widen your market, and set you among the forerunners of digital innovation.
