The Importance of an ADA Compliant Website

The Americans with Disabilities Act enforces equitable access for millions of individuals with disabilities. When it comes to website access, there are many opportunities for promoting equal accessibility standards and appropriate public accommodation. In some instances, websites missing ADA compliance standards can even be vulnerable to litigation. 

ADA website compliance is necessary, but it also makes your website usable for people with disabilities. For example, blind users can successfully run assistive technology like a screen reader on a site that utilizes appropriate tags and alternative text. A compliant website can promote business to any market and makes it easier for all users to access the same information. 

MEZIESBLOG has years of experience in transforming sites to meet ADA accessibility compliance standards.

Who Benefits from ADA Compliant Websites and How?

Web accessibility utilizes a variety of tags and digital markups that allow disabled users to access information in an alternative or enhanced way, directly or indirectly, with additional tools like screen readers. These disabilities can include:

• Visual
• Auditory
• Cognitive
• Neurological
• Physical
• Speech

Pages with ADA website compliance in mind also benefit others without disabilities. This can include mobile device users, the elderly with changing abilities, environmental situations such as looking at a screen in bright lights, or even site visitors with low bandwidth internet access.

Ways to Make a Website ADA compliant

• Add Alt Text for all images
• Organize heading and page titles
• Form fields for search bars and forms
• Keyboard only functionality
• Transcriptions for auditory media
• Increasing contrast to make text more legible
• Optimize page structure

4 Steps to Making a Website ADA Compliant 

1 – Site Scan Page by Page 

We look at every core page of your site including post types within your theme. We document all we find and make a plan to address the most important issues.

2 – Make the Fixes 

We go item by item from the highest priority and start impacting ADA compliant changes to your pages. Focusing on what will make the biggest impact for users and future scans.

3 – Rescan

We rescan all the core pages again and document the improvements with before and after images to show the differences and results.

4 – Discuss Scans and Plan Any Future Work as Needed

With our ADA compliance package, we are able to make most sites very ADA compliant. But, in some cases, more work may be needed for particularly large or complex sites. If this is the case, we present the remaining opportunities and lay out a plan to address them as an additional project.

The Elevato Difference   

Here’s what you can expect from a proper ADA compliance website project.

Two Accessibility Scans

We perform one full scan, page by page, at the beginning of your accessibility audit and another full scan after implementing the Elevato Strategy. During each scan, we provide Level A corrections of all critical errors and offer helpful suggestions for all remaining errors. The two-part scanning process ensures that your entire site is fully vetted.

In-Depth Recommendations 

We focus our efforts on Level A compliance issues. Level A is the minimum level of accessibility requirements with the most basic level of web accessibility features required by the ADA. Our team immediately addresses all Level A violations. Then, we highlight the remaining violations and offer suggestions, guides, and tips for fixing these issues. 

We utilize the Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool (WAVE) during both scans During both scans to identify non-accessible site features. Additionally, Google Lighthouse is used as a secondary report to verify all fixes and confirm that we’ve corrected all significant violations. 

We dedicate hours to your site — referencing and fixing all major accessibility issues. Our strategy is comprehensive as we strive to deliver the specific services your site needs. Here are our 4 steps to making your website ADA compliant.