Are you aware that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) applies to websites and in-person spaces?
Since the early 21st century, it’s been the law that any business that provides services online must have an ADA-compliant online presence. Some web developers have different systems for ensuring ADA compliance for their sites. However, most follow WCAG guidelines and aim for A, AA, or AAA compliance.
If you’ve never thought about online accessibility before, how can you be sure that your website is accessible? Keep reading for a few things to keep in mind as you build your online site.
Text Size
The text on your pages should be resizable by assistive technology and on differently-sized device screens. This helps people using various sizes of screens and individuals who need larger font sizes to read the text content on your site.
Alternative Text
When uploading new images to your site, you should have the option to associate alternative text with each image. This information is vital for visually-impaired users and anyone who uses a screen reader to access your site.
When a screen reader reads a site, the alternative text will be read in the place of any images on your site. For this reason, your alternative text should wholly and accurately describe the content of your image. You’ll also want to indicate that background images are aesthetic only so that you don’t confuse the user.
Transcripts and Captions
All video and audio content on your site needs to have captions and transcriptions for your site contents to be accessible.
With the recent developments in artificial intelligence, you have many options for auto-generating caption and transcription software available online. Many of these services are offered at varying price points, with differing levels of quality provided in return. No matter which tool you use, always have a human go back and check your transcriptions and captions for accuracy.
PDF Files
Any PDFs on your website need to be accessible by screen readers. If you save them as image files and upload them to your site, you’ll have an accessibility problem on your hands.
Instead, start with a fully tagged Word document; when you save it as a PDF, you’ll have an accessible document. If that’s not an option, you’ll need to go through your PDF and manually tag all the content in the document.
Simple Navigation
Instead of deeply nesting pages and burying content through your site, opt for a wide, shallow navigation structure. For example, no page on your website should be more than one or two links away from your homepage.
Hire Professionals to Help You Out
All of these steps only scratch the surface of web accessibility. If your in-house website developers don’t already have this knowledge, how can you justify spending the time teaching them about web accessibility?
Thankfully, you don’t have to. Our Boise web developers can help you with your ADA-compliant web design needs.
Work With Us to Make Your Website ADA Compliant
As you can see, creating an ADA-compliant site involves a lot of factors. Your text content, images, and site navigation all play a role in the accessibility of your site. For the best quality possible, work with experts to help maintain site accessibility for all your online users.
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