Accessibility
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ADA WEBSITE COMPLIANCE
AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) states that every business website has to be accessible to people with disabilities. The Law prohibits discrimination based on disability by places of “public accommodation”, meaning websites or brick-and-mortar facilities.
People with disabilities, specifically those who are blind or visually impaired, have been filing lawsuits against businesses over website accessibility issues, and many of them were winning.
WHAT IS WEB ACCESSIBILITY?
Web accessibility is a set of design guidelines, rules, code standards, and behaviors. They are used to enable people with disabilities, which comprise 20% of the world’s population, to use websites effectively.
To achieve this, the W3C (The World Wide Web Consortium) has created the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1), which guide developers on how to make websites accessible.
The WCAG focuses mainly on three areas of accessibility: blind people using screen-readers (JAWS, NVDA), people with motor impairments who use only keyboards, and a variety of other disabilities such as color blindness, epilepsy, and minor visual impairments that are mainly focused on the UI and design of the website (color contrasts, animations, fonts, etc.).
HOW DOES IT APPLY TO WEBSITES?
A website should be prepared and agile enough to address all forms of disabilities. For example, does your website contain videos? If it does then you need to provide audio captions as well as transcripts for those with auditory or cognitive issues.
In order to comply with the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design, a clean and minimal layout must be considered for those with cognitive and learning disabilities. Larger buttons and customizable text is also needed to assist those with visual impairments.
It makes it easier for a wide audience to use your website when a user can change the spacing, size, color and font. It makes them more comfortable for regardless of what type of device they use to access it.
IS ADA WEBSITE COMPLIANCE MANDATORY FOR MY WEBSITE?
Not yet. Although multiple states have adopted their own accessibility laws. As a result the volume of accessibility-related lawsuits filed against websites has increased in recent years. Plaintiffs have been more successful in these suits than previously. If your website isn’t ADA accessible, you are liable and can potentially face legal action.
