Is Your Website ADA Compliant? : Website Compliance Checklist
A website compliance checklist will provide sufficient requirements for you to meet ADA compliance for accessibility. ADA compliance refers to making your website accessible to users with disabilities. These can include visual, auditory, and physical disabilities that can affect online interaction and commerce.
There are two practical reasons for checking your ADA compliance. One is that you avoid lawsuits from users that cannot access your site for information, products or services. The courts tend to side with the plaintiff if there are ADA violations, with little to no room for grey area.
Another reason is that you can reach out to more users interested in doing business with you. When there are invisible barriers in place, you are missing out on potential customers. What’s more, they are more likely to trust your business when you show that you can accommodate them.
The ADA Website Compliance Checklist
Below are several of the features you can add to a website to reach ADA compliance. These are defined by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) which are the standards used internationally. Out of three tiers, III is the highest.
Alt Text, Transcripts And Audio Descriptions
No one likes broken images. The image can be very annoying to users. Alt text helps because they are added to images to describe what they are.
Generate a software to create a transcript and edit it for errors. Then put it alongside any videos or podcasts.
Audio descriptions work to explain what is going on in videos. These are good for people who are visually impaired.
Organized Content
This is common sense; make sure that your headers are clear and describe various parts of your site. Each page needs to be relevant to your business, with titles that match addresses and
Disorganized sites are less likely to rank on Google, and users will have a hard time navigating. It is also harder for people with disabilities to understand the purpose of your business. Make sure every page has meaning so that you aren’t marked as spam.
Legible Font And Colors
You don’t need fancy fonts to win over a user. In fact, many graphic designers recommend going with simple serif fonts like Verdana for the Internet. Try to avoid sans serif fonts like Papyrus; if you want a sans serif, use Comic Sans or Dyslexia fonts, which are designed to help users with learning disabilities.
The same goes for color. Some fonts are hard to read when they’re against a background with a similar tint. Make sure that your contrasts are blatant, and that the color palette works to convey your content with clarity.
Protect Yourself From Accessibility Lawsuits With Site Compliance
At Site Compliance, our tools are designed to preemptively test your website. We want to ensure that you have the means to work with assistive technology and that you can handle lawsuits. Our goal is to keep your website compliant on a regular basis.
Contact us today to get started with your site compliance journey. We’ll test your alt text and ability to convey information to screen readers. You have nothing to fear from the Department of Justice.