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A physical disability should not become and inability.
Something is currently going on and it’ll only be a matter of time before it gets to you or your company! Website owners are being targeted and sued for a law they are ignorant of!
It’s the ‘ADA’ act and WCAG which requires businesses to make accommodations for people with disabilities in ALL their web and digital content.
ADA is an acronym for American’s With Disability Act and WCAG, Website Content Accessibility Guidance. In short, you need to be ADA & WCAG compliant, because authorities aren’t messing around one bit. If you think it’s a game, let me assure you that it’s not. Everything is coming under scrutiny; websites, apps, and pdfs included. All of these are susceptible to lawsuits and litigation.
According to stats, there are over 400 million active websites online. All of these websites are required by law to provide equal accessibility options and preferences to everyone according to the International Website Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and in the United States, ALL websites MUST be in compliance with the Americas with Disability Act(ADA).
To be compliant, all sites must be free of barriers that would make it difficult or impossible for people with disabilities to make use of them. A non-compliant website can turn into a major problem for your business as a lawsuit, for example, could be filed against your company if people with disabilities cannot access or use your site.
Even if your business didn’t intend to discriminate or exclude people with disabilities from visiting or using your website, you could pay thousands of dollars in lawsuits.
That’s why finding out if your website is compliant and doing something about it is most important right now!
Businesses are being sued left and right, and no one is safe right now. These lawsuits are costing business owners tens of thousands of dollars. The average ADA compliance lawsuit is $50,000.
What Is WCAG?
WCAG is an acronym which stands for “Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.” These internationally-recognized guidelines, created by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), were designed to ensure that website users with physical disabilities, such as those who are visually or hearing impaired, can access web content in the same way as those who don’t have these physical challenges.
What Are Some of the Top Issues Which Make Sites Inaccessible?
When visually-impaired persons try to access non-text items on your site (like images and photos), they won’t know what those images are unless your site provides a text alternative which can be read by a narrator. Not having the alternative text will make a site inaccessible to these users. In addition to providing so-called “alt text,” compliant sites provide captions for multimedia and make all functionality available from a keyboard.
WCAG prescribes three levels for compliance: beginner, intermediate and advanced. Following are some of the primary WCAG compliance issues at each of these levels.
To be compliant at the beginner level, your website must:
Provide text alternatives for non-text content
Provide an alternative to video-only and audio-only content
Provide captions for all videos which include audio
Use more than one sense for all instructions
Not use presentation that relies solely on color
Make all functionality accessible by keyboard only
Ensure users have control over time limits
Provide user controls for moving content
Provide a “skip to content” link
Use clear and helpful page titles
Present items in a logical order
Make the purpose of every link clear from its context
Ensure page elements do not change when they receive focus on input
Clearly identify input errors
To be compliant at the intermediate level, your site must, in addition to the above:
Ensure the contrast ratio between text and background is at least 4.5:1
Ensure text can be resized to 200% without loss of content or function
Not use images of text
Offer several ways to find pages
User clear headings and labels
Ensure the keyboard focus is clear and visible
Inform users when the language on a page changes
Use all menus consistently
Use all icons and buttons consistently
Suggest fixes when users make errors
Reduce the risk of input errors for sensitive data
To be compliant at the advanced level, your site must, in addition to the above:
Provide sign language translations for videos
Provide extended audio description for videos
Provide a text alternative for videos
Provide alternatives for live audio
Ensure the contrast ratio between text and background is at least 7:1
Ensure all audio is clear for listeners to hear
Offer users a range of presentation options
Make content accessible by keyboard only, without exception
Remove all time limits
Not interrupt users
Save all user data when re-authenticating
Always let users know where they are (within site navigation)
Break up all content with appropriate headings
Explain any strange or unusual words
Explain all abbreviations
Ensure all content can be read by a user with no more than nine years of education
Explain all words which are difficult to pronounce
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