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Accessibility has always been important to factor into your website. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a civil rights law put in place to prevent discrimination, and requires all public domains to be accessible to everyone.
Having an Accessible website improves usability for people with disabilities and makes the user experience more pleasant.
Website ADA Requirements and WCAG Compliance
Why is Accessibility Important in Websites?
- Your website is legally required to be accessible
- Having an accessible website increases your client base
- Search engines favor more accessible sites and will rank them higher
History of Accessibility Compliance for Websites
In 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act was instituted in an effort to end discrimination based on differing abilities. As such, ADA requires organizations to provide “reasonable accommodations” to people with disabilities in all areas of public life. Over the years ADA has been updated to be more inclusive, with the last update to the law was in 2008.
Since the last update to ADA, the internet has become more and more prevalent and necessary for functioning in today's society. As such, it tracks that providing those “reasonable accommodations” are important for websites as well.
Going beyond the law, there are a number of best practices and industry standards that you can follow to make sure you are creating an accessible website.
The Difference Between ADA and WCAG
ADA
The Americans with Disabilities Act is a law that requires accessibility to public spaces for people with disabilities. You are required by law to make sure your business meets these accessibility standards in both your physical and digital forms.
For more information about ADA’s website accessibility standards, visit: https://www.ada.gov/resources/web-guidance/
WCAG
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is a set of guidelines to follow to make sure your website is fully accessible. These guidelines were put together and published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
Unlike ADA, WCAG is constantly being updated and refined. The latest published version, WCAG 2.1 was published in 2018, and they are currently working on finalizing WCAG 2.2 - set to be published early 2023. Unlike ADA, which was last updated in 2008.
Also Unlike ADA, WCAG has an in-depth set of guidelines that outline how your website can be as accessible as possible (and also ensures you meet ADA requirements).
Other Accessibility Requirements: Section 508
Section 508 is very similar to ADA as far as its purpose, however it does not apply to everyone. The law was created specifically for federal agencies, and outlines accessibility requirements they must follow for both physical and digital spaces. It also requires equal access to electronic and information technology.
More likely than not, Section 508 is not something your business will have to worry about. If you’re curious about if Section 508 applies to you, you can read about it here: Do Section 508 Accessibility Standards Apply to My Website?
Latest WCAG Guidelines for Accessibility
WCAG categorizes accessibility issues into four different types of issues. These categories are: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust or “POUR” for short.
In addition to the different kinds of issues, WCAG also has different levels of compliance. These levels include A (basic compliance), AA (excellent compliance), and AAA (perfect compliance). WCAG recommends aiming for AA compliance on all of your pages, and advises against trying to achieve perfect AAA compliance, as it is impossible for some pages.
To make sure your website is following WCAG’s guidelines, you can check out its latest updates here: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/
Perceivable Accessibility
WCAG says “Information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive.”
This means including visual substitutes (such as captions or descriptions for audio or video content) for people with hearing impairments; and audible substitutes (such as optimizing for screen readers) for people with visual impairments.
Read more about Perceivable requirements here: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/#perceivable
Operable Accessibility
WCAG says “User interface components and navigation must be operable.”
This section of WCAG covers issues that impact a visitor’s ability to navigate and use a website (for example, ensuring that all site functions and navigation can be operated using keyboard-only commands). For some users, navigating a website with a mouse can be difficult, which is why having these accommodations is important.
Read more about Operable requirements here: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/#operable
Understandable Accessibility
WCAG says “Make text content readable and understandable.”
This means making sure that your pages are easy to read and understand, including navigation, written content, etc. This also means that whenever there is an error, you should have error messages that clearly explain the error and how to fix it.
Read more about Understandable requirements here: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/#understandable
Robust Accessibility
WCAG says “Content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies.”
This section discusses a website’s ability to adapt and evolve to meet the changing needs of users with disabilities (for instance, testing compatibility with all leading screen readers and ensuring that those capabilities can be upgraded in the future).
Read more about Understandable requirements here: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/#robust
Conclusion and Resources
While the Americans with Disabilities Act is likely vague on its guidelines and requirements for online accessibility, there is no question that equal access is a major concern for users across America, and for the courts that serve those users.
When it comes to meeting accessibility requirements, abiding by WCAG accessibility standards remains the best option for most organizations. It’s not just a smart way to avoid accessibility lawsuits and negative publicity—providing accessible solutions for all users is just the right thing to do.
Visit WCAG for their in depth list of guidelines: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/
