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Is my website ADA compliant?

Raheem Abdul
Updated

Our website platform implements the Website Content Accessibility Guidelines  standards to ensure every client website can demonstrate a good faith effort to be ADA Compliant by making the information and services on your website accessible to all people equally regardless of their disabilities.

Automated audit scores for our current clients' websites are very favorable. But before launching a new website, we highly recommend performing both an automated and manual human audit to ensure your own custom website does not have barriers to disabled persons. If a valid problem with our core platform is revealed, we will make it a priority to fix it without cost. If you need help resolving issues with custom designs or content, we are available for custom consultation or we can refer you to other experts.

We have made a good-faith effort with our available resources to ensure WCAG compliance with all current functionality on our platform. We constantly audit the site and make it a priority to respond to and fix any known issues that would impact accessibility. But dynamic websites include custom client content or third-party plugins, for which we do not take responsibility. And modern dynamically generated websites are built with complex technology and thousands of files that interact in unpredictable ways, so oversight or human errors may sometimes occur rendering some part of a website inadvertently inaccessible (to any type of visitor) without our knowledge. In addition, the existing WCAG standards are often vague in real-world use cases, and the laws are also inconsistently defined and interpreted, so WE WILL SUPPORT YOU TO FIX ACCESSIBILITY PROBLEMS BUT WE DO NOT GUARANTEE COMPLIANCE. IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO AUDIT YOUR OWN WEBSITE FOR ACCESSIBILITY ISSUES AND ALERT US TO KNOWN PROBLEMS.

Why is website accessibility important?

If your website discriminates against people with disabilities by not providing equal access to all the information, functionality and services available to non disabled people, you can be sued under the Americans with Disability Act (and even stricter state requirements like California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act) and be liable to pay huge fines plus attorney’s fees. But before we talk about the dire legal consequences there is something even more important to consider.

Sit in front of your computer, close your eyes and then try doing the things you take for granted every day: read the news, check the weather, shop online, search for a new house, engage on social media. Are you able to navigate to a website and avail yourself of all the same services available to others? That is the experience of millions of people currently excluded from this powerful alternative reality that empowers access to education, work, travel, speech, political and social engagement, entertainment and touches nearly every part of our lives. 

Something this fundamental to modern life needs to be a resource accessible to all people equally. Unfortunately, most of the internet is dark and behind barriers for people with disabilities, particularly those with visual and hearing impairments. Not only is this fundamentally unequal, unethically and unjust, it is also bad for business. 

What are the legal requirements for website accessibility and compliance?

We cannot provide legal advice. You must talk to a lawyer to understand your full obligations under the law. In the past the legal landscape was not clear, but in recent years the precedents have been clarified and lawsuits are exploding. The Americans with Disabilities Act and other state laws like California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act require websites to be accessible to persons with disabilities. The Website Content Accessibility Guidelines (2.0 A, AA) have become the de facto standard we must follow. Anyone who does not comply is at risk of costly fines and fees.

The spirit of the law is that disabled persons must have equal access to all services and opportunities provided to non-disabled people, in person, over the phone and also on your website.

How can websites be made accessible to people with disabilities?

Fortunately, people with disabilities can use screen readers that can help transform visual content into an audio map that lets them navigate a website with their keyboard and listen to descriptions (Learn more about how people with disabilities use the internet). But if a website isn’t created in a standardized way that defines a logical semantic structure, allows hierarchical keyboard navigation, provides labels for links and images, or text summaries of videos and audio, a screen reader will not work. Screen readers may get stuck in a loop that prevents navigation, poorly named images or links don’t describe the content, disabled users can’t fill out forms, response messages or pop ups aren’t put into focus and remain unknown. 

Third-party plugins that promise “AI” solutions by providing an overlay are better than nothing, in that they show a good-faith effort to assist people with disabilities. But they should only be used in cases where an older website has not been able to upgrade to a fully compliant platform yet. And it must be known that these overlays do not provide the same level of compliance as a native solution. There are hundreds of lawsuits against websites that rely solely on this method. Nothing can guarantee protection from a lawsuit, but you can greatly reduce the probability by showing a good-faith effort so that you are not an easy target and at least have a good defense if you need it.

What is the WCAG and how does this make my website ADA Compliant?

The Website Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is the de facto legally accepted standard that describes how to structure a website at the programming/coding level so that a screen reader can interpret the menus, content, images, contact forms, and general functionality in a way that disabled persons have equal access. The WCAG also describe how to avoid common design problems for those with color blindness, epilepsy, etc. (e.g. best practices with contrast, colors, font size, flashing, etc). In order to be considered a violation the issue must cause a proportionately greater problem for people with disabilities than it causes people without disabilities. The WCAG contains several levels of success criteria that are testable (so compliance can be verified) and a site is considered to be "ADA compliant" if it has at least reached A and AA levels of compliance, while AAA is merely recommended if you want to ensure an easy experience.  We do periodic audits of our websites with automated testing tools and also manually using a screen reader to detect real world problems, and when we find accessibility issues, we fix them to the best of our ability.

What must website owners do on their own?

Our WCAG and ADA compliant platform will take your content and make sure that it is structured in a way that allows screen readers to navigate the website, understand the information, and perform the required functionality, so that people with disabilities can access all your services. But website owners also have a responsibility to make sure their custom website is compliant:

  • Add Descriptive Titles to Images and Documents with Images
    • When you add new images (or documents) to your website, make sure you first name the files in a descriptive way, e.g. not “48482647.jpg” but “100 Oak Street - San Francisco - modern kitchen with lots of natural light and plants.jpg” These names are used as alternative text descriptions for the blind (and are also helpful when you want to find your images in the website admin media library).
    • If you have PDF documents that include images, these must have descriptions of the visual content.
  • Closed Captioning and/or Text Transcripts of Audio and Video.
    • Any audio or video on your website needs to include closed captioning or link to a full transcript. Vimeo has a great interface for automatically adding closed captioning (which you can edit).
  • Screen Reader Emulator
    • Using a screen reader emulator like Silktide (Chrome Plugin) you can browse your website simulating various disabilities. This helps you understand the user experience of disabled visitors, empathize, prioritize and also identify possible problems. Keep a log of these periodic audits to show a good faith effort to keep your site accessible.
  • Automatic and Manual Audits
    • You should audit your website before launch using both automated tools and manual audits. And you should periodically audit the site and keep a record of these audits to show a good faith effort to be compliant in case of a future lawsuit. We partner with a full service compliance company that can provide these audits and certifications. Speak to our customer service team for details.

Additional Resources

Need help? 
Feel free to reach out to us at support@gutensite.com or support@hellomarket.io. Alternatively, you can schedule a free consultation call at Gutensite.com/appointment.   

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