Need an ADA Compliant website, but aren’t sure where to start? At Enilon Digital Marketing Agency, we have experienced ADA website designers and developers available to help update your build or update your existing website to make it ADA compliant.
What is ADA compliance? Why does my website need It?
ADA stands for the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on an individual’s disability. With over 50 million Americans currently living with a disability, the act seeks to ensure these citizens have access to “public and private places that are open to the general public.”
While in the past ADA largely focused on accessibility features in physical stores, offices and government buildings, in 2018 the act was expanded to include technology interfaces such as websites. As a result, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) is now the widely accepted standard for compliance with the ADA.
What happens if my website isn’t ADA compliant?
According to ADA.gov, if your business or organization’s website is found to be non-compliant, you could be subject to a fine of $75,000 – $150,000 each time you’re found in violation. Between 2017 and 2018, ADA compliant website lawsuits nearly tripled. According to a report by Usable Net, 21% of businesses targeted by an ADA lawsuit were sued more than once. Between government fines and lawsuits, websites that are not widely accessible to users are not only costly to your reputation, but also your bottom line.
What does an ADA Compliant website look like?
Simply put, ADA compliance is about making your site accessible to all users. So if a visited has a sight implementation, the ADA compliance for that visitor may mean adding screen readers that read the pages text for a visitor, or to accommodate a hearing impaired visitor, it may mean adding closed captioning to videos. For website owners, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) serves as the gold standard for ADA compliance.
Getting started with ADA compliance
So you’re ready to get your website ADA compliant, but aren’t sure where to start? Begin with an expert.
As ADA compliance is a legal matter, at Enilon we advise our clients to consider engaging legal experts on the topic. We highly recommend that this be your first step in the process to make your website/technology ADA compliant. If you aren’t sure who can help, we’re happy to provide recommended legal advisors who can counsel you on the issue.
Enilon ADA Web Design Services
At Enilon, we’ve helped numerous customers with designing and updating their websites to make them ADA compliant. The following are a few of the kinds of ADA compliance services we offer
ADA Site Audits
Enilon uses industry standard tools to analyze your site and determine what changes need to be made to the site to make it compliant with WCAG 2.0 standards. This includes scanning every page within the site and producing a comprehensive report with our findings and proposed solutions. Some of the items the audit will examine include:
- Web Page Title and Heading Tags – to make content more accessible to all users, pages should be organized in a clear and hierarchical manner utilizing clear and descriptive headings.
- Text Contrast and Color Check– text on page should have enough contrast in the background to make it easy to read.
- Captioning and Alt Text – all photos, multimedia images and videos on a website should include descriptive alt text to accommodate users in the case the media can’t be viewed. Additionally, video media should include captions and audio media transcribed.
- Flash Animation – strobing or flash animation should be avoided to accommodate users who may be prone to seizures.
- Keyboard Accessibility – Features such as Drop down list and form controls should be controllable via keyboards.
ADA Site Fixes Implementation
Enilon has a long history of bringing sites up to compliance standards and we will use this expertise to do the actual work of making your site WCAG 2.0 compliant. This process includes another comprehensive audit after the issues have been addressed to ensure compliance.
Ongoing Compliance Maintenance
A website is not a static entity and with constant content and design updates will encounter issues with ADA compliance. We highly recommend using our team to continue to support the site and guarantee compliance in an ongoing manner month to month. This process includes monthly audits and progress reports on fixes to be implemented from those monthly audits. This also ensures you that as you do ongoing code development and deployments, those deployments will be handled from an ADA first perspective.
