Your Essential ADA Compliance Checklist For Website Accessibility

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Businesses often focus a lot on making their website efficient in terms of loading times, SEO optimization, and reaching their target audience. An issue like website accessibility can often be overlooked – ignoring the fact that a huge number of people have disabilities that make using websites difficult.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires not only physical businesses but also online businesses to meet certain accessibility requirements. These online accessibility requirements are known as Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Want to make sure your website is up to ADA compliance standards? We made it easy for you! Review our ADA compliance checklist to make sure your website meets all accessibility requirements.

Your Essential ADA Compliance Checklist for Website Accessibility

To meet ADA compliance for your website, you must work on 5 different sections according to the WCAG 2.2 guidelines, which include:

1. Perceivable
2. Operable
3. Understandable
4. Robust
5. Conformance

Each one covers a set of requirements, and below, we have explained everything that you need to do.

Perceivable

Your website must be present in ways that allow it to be seen in several ways. This includes giving non-text material choices and making audio and video media available.

• Text alternatives for content that is not text

Make text alternatives available for non-text content sections, allowing it to be converted into other formats that users require, such as big print, speech, symbols, braille, or simpler language.

• Create time-based media alternatives

Create alternatives for time-based media such as captions for videos, to ensure that users who cannot hear can still access the material.

• Creating simpler layouts for displaying content in adaptable ways

Create content you can display in various ways without sacrificing structure or information, increasing flexibility for various presentation methods.

• Making content easier to see and hear

Separate foreground and background and use clear audio-visual features to make material simpler to see and hear for individuals with visual or hearing impairments.

Operable

Users should be able to navigate content and operate interface components. This necessitates ensuring that all functionalities are accessible by keyboard, allowing enough time to interact with content, and eliminating design aspects that may cause seizures.

• Making all functionality controlled by the keyboard

Ensure that all functions are accessible via a keyboard interface, allowing users who are unable to use a mouse to navigate successfully.

• Giving users enough reading time

Allow visitors ample time for reading content without feeling rushed; this is especially important for people who require more time to comprehend information.

• Preventing content that causes seizures

Avoid aspects that may cause seizures in web content, particularly anything that flashes or blinks.

• Helping users navigate with ease

Include systems that assist users in navigating the site, finding content, and determining their position.

• Making it possible to navigate using multiple inputs

Allow navigation using input devices other than a keyboard or mouse, accommodating a wide range of user needs and technology. This may include tech gadgets for people with disabilities.

Understandable

The information and user interface operation must be understandable. This means that text content should be readable, web pages should function consistently, and error prevention and correction aids should be supplied.

• Improving content readability

WCAG 2.2 emphasizes the need to improve content readability, ensuring that text can be easily read and understood by users with cognitive or learning difficulties.

• Making web page operation predictable

Focuses on making web pages run predictably, assisting people with cognitive limitations in comprehending and navigating material.

• Help users avoid mistakes

Create designs that assist users in avoiding mistakes, which is especially crucial for people with cognitive, language, or learning challenges.

Robust

To ensure optimum compatibility and endurance of web content, the material must be strong enough to be consistently understood by a wide range of user agents, including assistive technology.

• Maximize compatibility with old and new assistive technology

Optimizing compatibility with both old and new technology means creating web content that works well with a variety of assistive tools. This ensures that all users may access and interact with content regardless of the assistive tech they use. The goal is to develop a web experience that is globally accessible and adapts to technical advancements in assistive technology while being easily accessible for individuals using older systems.

Conformance

Conformance to WCAG 2.2 means achieving all of its requirements, ensuring accessibility for people with various disabilities across various devices and environments.

• Including normative requirements to impact conformance claims

Conformance requires complying with all normative requirements established in WCAG 2.2, which are crucial and mandatory for meeting accessibility standards.

• Meet conformance requirements

Achieving conformity necessitates meeting particular success criteria outlined in WCAG 2.2 with all 3 levels, which ensures that web content is accessible to people with a wide range of disabilities.

• Conformance claims

A conformance claim is a declaration made by the content provider that they have met all of the WCAG 2.2 criteria for a given level of accessibility.

• Third-party content

Managing third-party content for accessibility is critical; nevertheless, it can be difficult because it frequently falls beyond the website owner’s direct control.

• Language

Clear language usage is essential for accessibility, as it ensures that content is intelligible to those with cognitive disabilities and those whose first language is not English.

• Privacy considerations

It is critical to ensure that accessibility features do not jeopardize user privacy, especially when providing solutions for users with impairments.

• Security considerations

It is critical to keep web material secure while keeping it accessible in order to safeguard both the website and its users.

3 Levels of ADA Compliance

When you work on WCAG requirements, you will see 3 different levels, which are as follows:

• A Level: minimum requirements to meet
• AA Level: everything that comes under A and more
• AAA Level: topmost level with some optional qualities.

It is important to aim for Level A, but going above that will be much better for your website.

Need ADA Compliance Support? Connectica LLC Can Help

When getting started, the requirements for ADA compliance may feel like a challenge, but they will be more rewarding than you think. However, with your expertise in business matters, you will find meeting these compliance requirements a bit too time-consuming. That’s where Connectica LLC brings the right opportunity for you by helping you achieve ADA compliance for your website. With ADA compliance requirements met, your website will become more accessible, resulting in better SEO scores and user experience. Get started with our expert website design and development team today and experience the difference our digital marketing can make for you.