Is your website ADA Compliant for 2018?
ADA compliance requirements are becoming more necessary in 2018. The US Department of Justice is scheduled to release long-awaited formal accessibility guidelines and many companies have already come under fire for not making their websites accessible to all users. The healthcare industry and financial institutions have been targeted with the most lawsuits so far, however the time has come for all businesses to begin adopting accessibility upgrades to allow viewers with disabilities better access to all aspects and information on the website with ease, regardless of visual or hearing impairment. Organizations that delay or ignore compliance updates risk potential legal hassles.Â
WHY is it necessary for your organization’s website to be ADA compliant?
When you remove web barriers for visitors with disabilities, you’ll also be investing in legal safeguards for your company. As hundreds of lawsuits are filed across the country, more businesses are realizing the importance of being proactive.
WHATÂ exactly does it mean to be ADA compliant?
The Americans With Disabilities Act makes it illegal to discriminate, and requires companies to provide equal access to goods and services for people with vision, physical, cognitive, or auditory disabilities (that’s one in five Americans).Â
HOW does your organization’s website become ADA compliant?
Although formal accessibility regulations have not yet been released, when the US Department of Justice currently addresses ADA website compliance, it refers to the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Content and Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. Meeting all 61 of the guidelines in WCAG 2.0 requires a highly trained team of specialists who will take your website through specific accessibility upgrades, including:
- Increasing color contrast ratios between text and page backgrounds to at least 4.5-to-1, or enabling users to set their own colors.
- Enabling users to navigate the website using only their keyboard.
- Applying accurate alt text to all images that convey meaningful information.
- Including a text transcript on all video or audio-only content.
- Removing underlined text that does not provide a link.
- Providing users with suggestions on how to solve input errors.
- Utilizing standard HTML tags that are universally recognized by web browsers.
Harp Interactive will perform a thorough accessibility audit to discover which steps your website and emails may be missing. We’ll share a report highlighting which compliance upgrades are needed, and provide a time and cost estimate.
WHEN is a good time to become ADA compliant?
We suggest ASAP. Formal guidelines are coming soon. It’s the perfect time to be proactive and get out in front of compliance updates.
Contact Harp today for a free ADA Compliance assessment.
