How Do You Make Your Website ADA Compliant?

In our last blog post, we discussed the importance of ADA compliance for websites. Now let’s get more specific, and discuss exactly what accessibility looks like and how to make that happen.

The blind and visually impaired are one of the primary populations of concern when we discuss this topic. Because many vision impairments are not easily corrected by a simple pair of glasses, this group often struggles with browsing the internet. While specific challenges can vary, the most common obstacles to website viewing include:

Text size
Font readability
Media size
Arrangement of website features
Color variation of background versus text

An appropriately ADA-compliant website will offer larger text and media, use a clear and straightforward font, and integrate information for maximum visibility. Images should be zoomable without losing quality.

Of course, for blind individuals the obstacles go beyond readability. This group needs integrated tools that read aloud text on the screen, describe pictures, and aid in navigation of the site. Because of the heavy reliance upon audio input, text dictations must be extremely clear and user-friendly.

Due to this population’s reliance upon Braille, websites should respond appropriately to the use of modified keyboards for both data input and navigation.

All of the above elements must be integrated into each page of the website, with all of them synchronizing reliably. For a large website that can mean many pages of content that must be scanned and modified, with software and third-party tools utilized cohesively throughout.

Yes, the process sounds daunting, but software engineers have worked to streamline this process for us. Rather than attempt to modify each page of content individually, ADA-compliant software can be installed in the back end of any website to address these tasks for us.

The following video explains how the software works to better serve your website visitors, along with ensuring ADA compliance for you. If you have any questions about how to install this software and integrate it into your website, contact us and we can explain the process in further detail.