fbpx
Scroll Top

ADA Website Compliance

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was introduced in 1990 to help the millions of Americans who live with disabilities. In everyday life, it ensures accessibility in public places and protects against discrimination. But did you know that these requirements apply not only to public places, but cyber spaces as well? That’s right – ADA is the law on the Internet, too. That means your website must meet certain standards for accessibility and functionality, and PaperStreet can help your business or law firm’s website to get there.

Web accessibility is designed to promote access by individuals with various disabilities, including mobility impairments, visual and hearing impairments, epilepsy, and cognitive impairments that can make working with computers challenging.

It is important for businesses and individuals to understand that the disabled may not be able to see, hear, or move easily, or at all. They may be required to use an early version of a browser, a different browser entirely, a voice browser, or a different operating system. The use of these alternate technologies may result in difficulties reading or comprehending non-ADA compliant websites. Thus, the slight cost to correct your site far outweighs the benefits.

Website ADA Compliance overview

Guidelines certify that your website:

  • Can be read by screen reading technology for the visually impaired. Meaning; all images and forms should have alternate text descriptions, in-page redundancy should be minimized, page color contrast should be sufficient for reading, and all videos should have captions.
  • Can be navigated in multiple ways. Users should be able to use the keyboard to move through the site, a site map or search functionality should be provided, headings should be presented in logical order, and links and buttons should be properly named.
  • Does not contain intrusive content. The site should be free from rapidly flashing lights or colors, and users should be able to stop all automatically-played audio files or videos.
  • Uses the latest markup standards. All “bold” tags should be replaced with “strong” tags, underlined text that is not linked should be removed, and there should be no major validation errors.

Benefits of ADA Compliance

  • It’s the law. A 2019 Supreme Court decision now allows lawsuits to be formed against sites that fail ADA compliance.
  • ADA Compliance improves your SEO efforts.
  • ADA Compliance may help your reputation.
  • ADA Compliance means overall better website usability.
  • Avoid penalties

Reduce Your Business Risk With an ADA Audit by Cosmick Technologies

Not sure your site is ADA Compliant? Cosmick Technologies will test your website using WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) for Level A and Level AA standards.

What Happens if My Site Isn’t ADA Compliant?

No worries, you’re in very capable hands. Cosmick Technologies has the experience and knowledge to improve accessibility of your website through careful design and development improvements.

Businesses and web designers have a responsibility to the disabled community to design websites that are accessible.
Please contact us here at Cosmick Technologies to discuss if your website requires any changes to ensure ADA compliance.

ADA Compliance in the News

Sign Up Today!