Common Website Accessibility & ADA Compliance Mistakes to Avoid
As the rules and regulations for ADA-compliant website checks continue tightening, it has become a requirement for all businesses with a digital presence to take proactive measures and make their websites accessible to everyone – regardless of their disabilities. Any non-compliance to this can cost you a hefty legal penalty.
So, where to begin optimizing your website for accessibility? Look at this article about six errors to check to make your website ADA-compliant.
6 ADA Website Audits to Prevent Errors
- Check Content for Accessibility Errors
Checking your content for accessibility errors is a common practice to avoid any incompetence of images, PDFs, videos, and other files with assistive technologies. Further, it’s best to ensure you have ADA-compliant documents to prevent errors and make your content consumable by everyone, regardless of their disabilities.
For example, have text descriptions for images to allow users with vision impairments to have the same access to visual content, include captions and subtitles for videos for deaf users, and make sure the website has a structured page.
- Consider User Experience
Apart from doing the ADA compliance checks from a technical point of view, you also need to take care of the practical aspects when complying with the rules of the ADA. Your website must provide a great user experience to users with disabilities. For instance, make sure the forms have appropriate form fields and labels for assistive technologies, page elements must contain clear elements, links should have accurate descriptions, and navigation link should be placed appropriately.
- Create Clear Instructions and Navigation
Make sure that your website is easy to navigate as you want every website visitor, regardless of their disabilities, to understand the important elements on your webpage for a positive experience. Include descriptive headings and logical page sequences for easier navigation for people using assistive technologies.
Also, provide buttons, arrows, or other visual cues to make searching for items they want easier for users.
- Approach Web Accessibility Holistically
A holistic approach to web accessibility involves considering the needs of all users, including those with disabilities, older people, and those using assistive technologies. To approach web accessibility holistically means considering various factors such as site design, content creation, and user experience.
The first step in this process is conducting an ADA website audit to identify potential barriers preventing certain users from accessing your site’s content. This audit should consider factors such as color contrast ratio, font sizes and styles, the navigability of the site’s menus and links, and compatibility with assistive technologies like screen readers or voice recognition software.
- Consider the Assistive Technologies Used by People with Disabilities
Several assistive technologies like voice recognition software, screen readers, and Braille displays are used to make life easier for people with disabilities. A business or organization is only good when you are empathetic towards people using these technologies to live their life conveniently. So, it becomes essential as a business owner to test out how these devices cohere with your website to create an inclusive environment for your visitors.
To make sure your website is working well with assistive technologies:
- Properly tag a document or webpage for screen readers to interpret it correctly
- Make sure every page has the option to adjust font color and size for better readability
- Provide alternatives if you have any interactive elements on your website.
- Conduct Manual Audit and Testing
While automated testing is essential to understand that there are complete ADA compliance checks and no lack of accessibility on your website, combining it with manual audits is also necessary for a cohesive ecosystem. Automated tools are meant to detect basic issues, but they lack to catch complex accessibility needs.
To manually check your website accessibility, use a keyboard instead of a mouse for navigation. Use a screen reader and see how it is reading your content.
Provide Proper Communication Access Within the Organization!
Lastly, while you’re ensuring your website visitors have a great user experience in visiting your website, you need to make sure the people working in your organization are also provided with convenience.
When a disability is not visible, we tend to overlook it. For example, include assistance for people who are hard of hearing in your team when conducting seminars, meetings, and interactions. Have your printed materials in large fonts and Braille, or include audio recordings for people with vision impairments and cognitive disabilities. Take the leap of faith and make your organization a better place to work!
