Make Sure Your Website is ADA Compliant
Make Sure Your Website is ADA Compliant
Expand your customer base and make these changes to better position your business for lasting success.
The right type of web content can make all the difference in helping you grow your business. Over time, of course, you’ll need to update your website design or launch an entirely new site to keep your brand relevant. While there are many factors to consider in launching a new site, one of the most important is ensuring it complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
It’s estimated that 22 percent of adult Americans have at least one disability. From mobility issues to visual impairments, disabilities can create significant challenges in accessing the internet.
While the ADA requires businesses to accommodate customers with disabilities, implementing this online has proven tricky, at best. Last year, the Supreme Court handed ADA proponents a major victory when it ruled against Domino’s in a lawsuit filed against the pizza giant by a blind man who was unable to use the chain’s website.
The good news is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) from the Web Accessibility Initiative offer several actionable steps for improving website accessibility. Here are a few essentials you cannot overlook.
1. Enable keyboard navigation.
Many internet users with disabilities are unable to use a mouse for navigation, relying on keyboards or other input devices. Unfortunately, keyboard-only navigation is often overlooked. In fact, an analysis of 10 million web pages by AccessiBe, an AI-powered web accessibility platform, found that 98 percent of website menus are not fully accessible, in large part because there is no way to navigate their websites using just the keyboard.
Common keyboard navigation tools include using the ‘Enter’ key to open dropdown menus and the ‘Esc’ key to close these menus. The ‘Tab’ key allows them to navigate between page elements, and so on.
