Following ADA compliance for websites ensures your users can easily access your site and have good experiences regardless of ability.
An ADA-compliant website adheres to the Title III accessibility requirements of the civil rights law by making accommodations for individuals with disabilities. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), developed through the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), provide a single shared standard to make web content more accessible for people with disabilities.
While achieving full accessibility takes time and effort, there are several website accessibility practices you can check on your site now.
ADA Best Practices
- Add alternative text: Use alt text within your HTML code to give meaningful descriptions of your web images’ function and appearance. You can typically add alt text through your Content Management System. Alt text allows people using screen readers to understand your web images’ context better. Bonus, it can also improve your SEO since alt text for your images provides context to search engine crawls.
- Provide keyboard navigation: Ensure users can navigate your entire website using the tab key and other keyboard functions, rather than a tactile mouse or touchpad. Designing with keyboard navigation in mind ensures your IA, headings, menus, and other web elements are organized in a way that all users benefit from.
- Use accessible colors: Ensure all your content’s colors adhere to the WCAG’s contrast ratio requirement for the visual presentation of text (especially text on images). It should be at least a 4.5:1 contrast ratio to be accessible and ADA compliant. Need a tool to check that? Try this Contrast Checker.
Check out more ADA tips and resources from Motley Fool’s article.
