If you’ve recently decided to make your site ADA compliant, that’s great news. While web accessibility might be new to you, ADA guidelines have been in effect since 1990. Since the internet was nowhere near as prevalent as it is today, it didn’t focus much on internet accessibility.
The goal of the ADA guidelines was to eliminate discrimination against people with disabilities in all forms. Having a website that’s not accessible means that you’re not extending the same privilege to people dealing with disabilities, and that counts as discrimination. If you want to make your site more accessible either out of good nature or to avoid sanctions, here’s what the people at accessiBe have to say about how you can do it.
Used a Tech-Based Solution
If you have no idea where to start or have limited knowledge of web design, the best thing you can do is to use an accessibility tool. A tool like accessiBe, for instance, will allow you to tackle all accessibility issues on your site using AI. All you’ll have to do is input a simple line of code on your website and it will start scanning for problems. It will also fix the problems for you and constantly check on your website to make sure that it remains compliant.
Do a Manual Test
This is a good option if you have significant web design experience. However, you could still miss a few things. If you don’t feel 100% confident in your abilities, know that there are services that will do it for you. An accessibility specialist may catch issues you have overlooked or simply weren’t aware of. You might also be obligated to hire one if you’ve received an ADA compliance letter. Some complaints will require that you have a certificate delivered by a professional, so you’ll have no choice but to hire one.
Make Sure the Site is Pause and Keyboard Friendly
One of the important aspects of ADA compliance is to make sure that the site is operable. Keyboard friendliness is one of the main measures for operability and this is something that anyone can test on their own. Simply put, your site needs to be navigated using a keyboard and a keyboard only. That’s because not every user can use a mouse or use a touchscreen. People also need to be able to pause any content or movement without using a mouse. This means that all auto-playing videos should be removed or replaced.
Use ADA Compliant Graphics and Add Alt Text Tags
Images and graphics play a very important role in ADA compliance. First, they have to meet a certain color ratio. They also need to not flash more than 3 times per second. Anything higher than that could trigger seizures. As well as this, you have to make sure that you use alt text. This is because assistive technology needs alt text to give people with restricted vision a description of any image on a page.
These are only some of the things that you can do if you want to make your site ADA compliant. We suggest that you use all the tools at your disposal and also consider working with an expert today.
