Does your website meet the ADA compliance standards?
If not, you might be slapped with an ADA lawsuit.
ADA compliance stands for the Americans with Disabilities Act Standards for Accessible Design. This act requires all the digital forms of information and technology–including your website–to be accessible to people with disabilities. But this short info is just the tip of the iceberg as there are a lot of associated things to know.
That’s why we have come up with important details about ADA accessibility in this blog.
So What is ADA Accessibility?
ADA compliance or the Americans with Disabilities Act Standards for Accessible Design requires a website to be accessible for everyone, including those with disabilities. According to this act, every business must make their website accessible for people with disabilities, including visually impaired, hearing impaired and those who need a voice, screen readers, or other technologies to access the website content.
Your website should be user-friendly for blind users, deaf users, and those who navigate by screen readers, voice, or other assistive technologies.
While the ADA was enforced nearly 30 years ago to protect the right of people with individuals with disabilities, the regulations for web accessibility came into effect in 2010.
How It is Related to WCAG?
WCAG or Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 explains how to make web content accessible to people with disabilities, elderly with altering abilities due to aging.
While WCAG looks like ADA, it is not a legal rule a business is bound to follow. Instead, it just provides a guide or checklist when implying ADA compliance. In other words, one can follow the WCAG guidelines while making their website ADA compatible.
What If Your Website Is Not ADA Compliant?
In most scenarios, when ADA compliance standards are not met, it might be out of ignorance or unintentional. However, it might not protect you from a lawsuit. Even if you forgot to imply ADA compliance design to your website by mistake, you could still end up paying a hefty amount in a lawsuit if your website is not accessible to everyone.
Apart from facing a lawsuit, you will be going through the following hassles for not following the ADA compliance standards:
- Hefty legal fees
- Settlement
- Public relations issues
- The cost involved in redesigning your website to make it ADA compliant.
Above all, you can miss out on the customers who are disabled just because your website is not accessible to all. The number of people with disabilities has increased by the millions over the few years, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
What are Popular ADA Lawsuits?
- Eminent real estate websites Zillow, CityRealty.com, and Move Inc faced lawsuits for not having accessible content for those with visual impairments.
- Dominos Pizza has been sued for not having properly accessible content.
- Netflix was served a lawsuit from the National Association of the Deaf for not making closed captioning available for its Watch Instantly content in 2012.
- Nike was hit by a lawsuit in 2017 on the grounds of not providing content for visually impaired users.
Which Businesses are Required to Apply ADA?
If your business has 15 full-time employees that work for 20 or more weeks every year, make sure to comply with the ADA. This category of business is covered Under Title I of the ADA.
The Title III of the ADA covers the category of “public accommodation” businesses such as banks, hotels, and public transportation.
If it is still confusing, you can refer to the 12 categories of the ADA of public accommodations to find out if you qualify for the ADA, such as stores, bars, restaurants, theaters, hotels, recreational facilities, private museums, schools, doctor’s office, dentist’s office, shopping malls, and other businesses.
In short, the ADA applies to any business that is open to the public, regardless of its size and type.
How to Check If Your Website is ADA Friendly?
There are a lot of free tools like WAVE, which you can use to check you’re color contrast, image alt text, text size, and more of your website. However, they check only one page at a time, instead of checking the whole site.
How to Be an ADA Compliant?
So how to design an ADA-compliant website?
As ADA doesn’t offer set regulations for website compliance, many businesses follow the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines).
Based on those WCAG guidelines, here are some common ways you can use to make your website ADA compliant.
Creating Alt Tags for all videos, images, and audio files
Alt tag lets users with disabilities hear or read alternative descriptions of content they might not otherwise be able to access. Alt tags describe the object.
Using Text Transcriptions for Video/Audio Content
Text transcripts enable hearing-impaired users to understand the content.
Offering Suggestions and Alternatives in Case of Input Errors
If a person with a disability is facing input errors because of their way to navigate the website differently, your site should offer recommendations as to how they can better access the content they require.
Using a Consistent, Organized Layout:
Menus, buttons, and buttons should be placed in such a way that they are clearly separated from one another, and are easy to navigate across the site.
LET US HELP YOU CHECK YOUR WEBSITE FOR ADA COMPLIANCE
ADA Compliance should be your topmost priority to not only avoid getting a penalty but also enhance the user experience of your website. If you want to make your website ADA compliant, but need professional assistance, contact the web design and development team at KVR. Our team will help identify the key issues and imply the solutions accordingly to make your website ADA compliant. Get in touch now!