ADA Compliance Checklist for Websites
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ADA compliance is not just a nice feature for websites; it’s a legal obligation. For your website to be considered ADA-compliant, it must meet accessibility guidelines. Check out our easily digestible ADA-compliance checklist to determine how accessible your existing content is.
Originally Posted on June 14, 2022
Roughly 1.3 billion people worldwide have a disability — that’s 16% of the world’s population. In the U.S. alone, 1 in 4 adults have a disability. Yet, only 3% of website homepages are accessible to individuals with disabilities. That’s excluding a considerable percentage of the world from accessing digital content.
To remedy this, the U.S. government requires website owners to make their digital content compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The act is designed to protect individuals with disabilities from discrimination in public places, which includes the internet.
Failing to meet ADA compliance standards doesn’t just put your business at risk of potential fines and lawsuits; it also hinders millions of individuals with disabilities from accessing your content and services.
Below, we’ve put together an ADA compliance checklist for websites and mobile apps to help you create more accessible content.
What is ADA Compliance?
The ADA was designed to ensure people with disabilities are protected from discrimination in places of public accommodation. Recent guidance from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) confirmed the internet is a public place and must follow ADA regulations.
ADA compliance means businesses open to the public provide accessible online content and services to people with disabilities. This means making digital content accessible to those who rely on assistive technologies, such as screen readers, to navigate the internet.
Digital content must follow the accessibility standards included in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to be compliant with the ADA. WCAG is considered to be the accepted standard for digital accessibility and is used in numerous accessibility laws and regulations worldwide. It’s also frequently used as a reference in ADA lawsuits. To be considered ADA compliant, U.S. businesses should aim for WCAG 2.1 Level AA conformance.
Evolution of ADA Requirements for Digital Content and Information Technology
As mentioned above, the ADA is a civil rights law that was created to prevent discrimination against individuals with disabilities and ensure equal access to public life. The ADA includes five titles:
- Title I - Employment: Requires employers with 15 or more employees to provide reasonable accommodations and prohibits disability-based job discrimination.
- Title II - Government Services: Mandates that state and local governments (including public schools and transportation) make their programs and services accessible.
- Title III - Public Accommodations: This applies to businesses, nonprofits, and existing facilities that serve the public, requiring accessible facilities and services, including websites.
- Title IV - Telecommunications: Requires telephone and internet companies to provide accessible communication services, such as relay services for individuals with hearing or speech disabilities.
- Title V - Miscellaneous Provisions: Includes additional protections, such as prohibiting retaliation against individuals who exercise their ADA rights and clarifying how the law interacts with other federal and state regulations.
When it comes to digital accessibility, the ADA does not include technical standards, which is where WCAG and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act come into play:
- WCAG is the international benchmark for web accessibility, detailing how to make digital content perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust for users with disabilities. It’s also the standard enforced by the U.S. DOJ.
- Section 508 is a federal requirement that mandates U.S. government websites and vendors meet accessibility standards included in WCAG.
For a deeper understanding of how each of these laws connect, read ‘The Difference Between Section 508, ADA, and WCAG.’
Is ADA Compliance Mandatory?
Yes, ADA compliance is mandatory for the majority of businesses operating in the U.S. Very few organizations, such as religious organizations or private clubs, are exempt from ADA compliance. Put simply, if your business has more than 15 employees, you must legally comply with ADA standards for accessible design as mandated by the federal government.
Why Should Your Website be ADA-Compliant?
Ensuring accessibility to online content and services is based on inclusivity and compliance. With the disability community making up 26% of the U.S. population, ensuring your content is accessible lowers your risk of legal action and opens your digital doors to a broader audience.
Prioritizing accessibility also brings additional benefits, including:
- Lower legal risk: An ADA-compliant website is less likely to face lawsuits for lack of accessibility, which can be expensive and reputation-damaging.
- Improved SEO rankings: SEO and accessibility go hand-in-hand — the more accessible and user-friendly your site is, the easier it is for search engines to determine what your page is about. Plus, the higher your SEO rankings, the wider your audience reach.
- Strengthening your brand: Today’s consumers value organizations that are committed to social responsibility and inclusivity. An ADA-compliant website demonstrates your commitment, which improves your brand reputation and expands your consumer base.
- Enhancing user experience: Most importantly, an ADA-compliant website improves the overall user experience — not just for those with disabilities but all users.
ADA Compliance Checklist for Websites
To make it easy for you to start checking your website for common ADA violations, we’ve included the WCAG success criteria in a checklist below.
The checklist is designed to help you improve website accessibility for users with disabilities and get closer to ADA compliance. It includes various accessibility features, including color contrast, alt text, captions, navigation, and more. We’ve also created a list of organizations with ADA-compliant websites here.
- Use sufficient color contrast: By providing enough color contrast, you can make it easy for people with visual impairments, including low vision or color blindness, to distinguish between various web elements. WCAG recommends a minimum color contrast level of 4.5:1 for normal text. You can use a color contrast checker to test the contrast ratio of your existing content.
- Include alt text: Any non-text content (e.g., images, graphs, charts, buttons, etc.) should include alt text. Be sure to use simple, descriptive language to convey the element’s purpose, as this ensures people with visual impairments or screen reader users don’t miss important context.
- Provide captions for videos: Video content should include accurate, synchronized captions, allowing users with auditory disabilities or those in noisy environments to interact with videos. You should also consider using audio descriptions or transcriptions for other multimedia content.
- Use descriptive links: Using descriptive links allows screen reader users to understand where links go, helping them determine whether or not they want to follow them.
- Provide accessible forms and documents: Create accessible online forms and documents (e.g., PDFs or Microsoft Documents) that include descriptive labels, clear instructions, error alerts, and keyboard-only access.
- Avoid using fast strobing lights: Refrain from using fast strobing lights in your web designs, as they can cause seizures or other physical reactions. If you use them, do so sparingly and allow users to turn them off.
- Include zoom functionalities: Ensure people can use a browser tool to increase text size or zoom. This allows users with visual or cognitive disabilities to focus on text and improve readability.
- Use headings properly: Use page headings that clearly and properly indicate the information hierarchy on a page. Proper heading use allows screen reader users to better understand how content is organized and how to navigate a page.
- Support keyboard navigation: Some individuals with disabilities don’t use a mouse to navigate web content, instead relying on keyboard commands and shortcuts. Ensure your digital content works for these users by making all functionality available from a keyboard.
- Add skip navigation: Skip navigation (also called skip links) allows users to bypass repetitive content — like navigation menus — and jump directly to a webpage's or online document's main content. Adding these to your digital content saves users from having to tab through lengthy menus on every page.
- Ensure assistive technology compatibility: Your digital content should also be content with assistive technologies, including screen readers, screen magnifiers, and text-to-speech software. Consider testing your digital content with actual assistive technologies, such as JAWS, NVDA, “Sip-and-Puff,” or switch devices, to improve compatibility.
- Use error messages: Help users avoid and correct mistakes, such as identifying input errors on forms, by using error messages. Be sure these messages include suggestions on how to correct the mistake.
- Avoid using color alone to portray information: Some users with visual impairments, particularly color blindness and low vision, may struggle to understand information portrayed by color alone. To create a more accessible experience, include patterns, graphics, text, and color.
- Ensure consistency across pages: The more consistent your website, the better the user experience for all users. Be sure to keep components like menus, buttons, and icons consistent across all your pages.
- Provide controls for auto-play content: Give users the ability to pause or stop auto-play videos or audio. Auto-play content can interfere with screen readers — providing controls or avoiding the functionality as much as possible improves their experience.
- Provide controls for time limits: Whenever using time limits, allow users to request more time without losing data. You should also provide warnings if your website is about to time out.
- Use the right language attributes: Be sure your pages are tagged with the appropriate lang attribute on your HTML attributes. This helps screen readers understand a page’s language and present information correctly.
To further improve the accessibility of your site, give users a way to report accessibility issues. This allows you to take more proactive steps to resolve them and improve the user experience.
Beyond WCAG: Best Practices to Stay ADA-Compliant
Beyond taking steps to make a website more accessible, businesses must employ best practices to reduce the risk of being sued — and penalized — for ADA non-compliance. In addition to the checklist above, here are a few best practices to help you achieve and maintain compliance.
Have an Ongoing Plan for Accessibility
Every time you publish new content or make website changes, you inadvertently create an opportunity for your website to become inaccessible. That’s why a one-time ADA audit is insufficient. You need to put in place an ongoing method to detect and fix emergent accessibility issues. Regular ADA accessibility testing and a detailed plan for remediation can help you ensure ongoing accessibility and ADA compliance.
Have a Comprehensive Approach to Accessibility in Your Organization
Automated tools that check for compliance issues often miss coding errors. To catch and resolve all accessibility issues, you need a more comprehensive approach that deploys both intelligent, automated compliance software and certified human experts. Consider using an accessibility platform that takes a hybrid approach, as this helps you create a more holistic — and effective — approach to accessibility.
Provide an Accessibility Statement
An accessibility statement is a written declaration of your commitment to accessibility as well as the accessibility standard applied in your operations (such as WCAG). It should also include any known accessibility limitations of your website, the measures taken by your organization to ensure accessibility, the environments in which your content has been tested, and references to applicable national or local laws and policies. Include your contact information in case users encounter accessibility issues.
Consider Accessibility from the Beginning
Accessibility shouldn’t be an afterthought and should start in the website design and content creation process. Following inclusive design principles and using the right development tools to build ADA compliance from the ground up means you minimize costly surprises. Given their expert knowledge and life experience, actively involving people with disabilities at all stages of the development process will help you understand how they access digital content and detect accessibility problems overlooked by others.
Meet ADA Requirements and Ensure Accessibility with AudioEye
Ensuring your digital content is ADA-compliant helps you create a more inclusive online environment for users with disabilities and improves their overall experience. Plus, it helps you minimize legal action being taken against your business for lack of accessibility.
Don’t let accessibility be an afterthought — take proactive steps to ensure your digital environment is ADA-compliant and provides a seamless experience for all users. With AudioEye, creating that compliant and seamless experience is easy.
AudioEye takes a three-pronged approach to accessibility, combining automation and human-assisted AI technology to detect and fix accessibility issues. Our comprehensive approach saves time and up to 90% in costs compared to traditional methods. Plus, with AudioEye Assurance, you’ll enjoy up to 400% better legal protection than consulting or automation-only approaches.
Ready to get closer to an ADA-compliant website? Get started by entering the URL of your digital content in our free Web Accessibility Scanner below.
Want to see how AudioEye can help you meet ADA compliance standards? Schedule a demo today.
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