Most people are well aware of the ADA accommodations related to wheelchair accessibility. However, the ADA laws have extended into the digital space and it is crucial businesses develop accessible commercial websites to reduce the risk of lawsuits. One has to make sure that the web content available to the public is accessible to disabled users. The legislation mandates that web content, technology, and electronic information should be “reasonably accessible” to people with a cognitive disability, hearing impairment or vision loss.
Let’s come back to the question, how to design an ADA compliant website? There are no set guidelines or codified rules to meet ADA compliance. Developers and business owners are expected to consider WCAG as a supporting document to achieve accessibility targets. Even those who consider it a good-faith effort – which it is – must admit it is also incredibly confusing. Reports revealed that more than 98% of the home pages have accessibility issues according to the WCAG framework. So what should be done? How do you know that the website you just launched is free from accessibility issues? How do you know that a user with low vision can easily access your content? Or how do you know that your website is free from the vulnerabilities of expensive digital accessibility lawsuits? The answer is simple, ADA website testing. You need to run a test on your website to make sure it is compliant and accessible.
What are the benefits of the ADA compliance website test?
Accessibility testing is the best practice for commercial websites. Testing your website helps in addressing the issues faced by disabled users. Determining the way a disabled user will navigate or access the web content is highly useful:
- It increases the size of your target audience
- It broadens your product reach
- It gives you a competitive edge
- It reflects your accountability
- It improves your SEO rankings
- It protects you against lawsuits
- It improves your profitability
How to check your site for ADA compliance?
It is highly beneficial to test your website or mobile app against the latest guidelines of WCAG and other ADA standards. There are two ways to check your website for accessibility issues, i.e. via software scans and via manual audits.
An ADA website checker is an automated tool that is used to quickly scan the codes of a business website or web application. However, while these automated checkers might be useful to quickly get a sense of your general level of accessibility, these software scans are only around 30% accurate. Therefore, businesses who are committed to accessibility and want to limit their lawsuit exposure, rely on manual audits to increase the credibility of the results provided by an ADA compliance website checker.
Human testing is much useful where relying solely on software scans is simply inefficient. For instance, a testing tool can be used to search all the missing or broken links in a website’s code but it can’t detect the frustration or discomfort faced by a user dealing with a cognitive disability. For instance, session timeouts or screen reader inefficiency are some of the problem areas which can’t be detected via software testing. Therefore, a combined approach of ADA testing with the help of sophisticated software and highly trained audit specialists is recommended to design a compliant website.
If you’re searching for a trusted ADA testing team, get in touch with ADA Compliance Pros. They have certified audit specialists who can conduct a thorough examination and suggest the most efficient remedies to design an ADA compliant website.
Comments