What is Involved in Website Compliance with ADA Requirements?
This isn’t a quick or simple answer, as there are many criteria involved, covering accessibility issues encountered by users who are dealing with many different disabilities. In this post, we’ll be dealing with the requirements of businesses’ websites which offer any goods, services, privileges, or activities to the general public. These are regulated under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act. We won’t deal with Title II, which regulates the requirements for state and local governments.
Most people tend to first think of users with impaired vision when website accessibility is mentioned. Poor color contrast or using color to provide guidance, failing to provide alt text on images, or a lack of closed captioning on videos are some of the major issues which present an accessibility barrier. But vision impairment is just one of many disabilities which can affect an individual’s ability to use a website.
Levels of WCAG Compliance:
WCAG Compliance is broken down into three conforming levels, each progressively more strict than the previous while still containing the rules of the previous level.
Level A Compliance:
The least strict level of compliance, Level A is the bare minimum that your website should conform to. If your website fails to conform to Level A it is generally considered inaccessible to most users with disabilities and the most vulnerable to potential litigation.
Level AA Compliance:
Considered the goal for most websites, Level AA is the minimum target we strive for at Web Narwhal. AA compliance includes all of A compliance and is considered reasonably compliant for most users.
Level AAA Compliance:
Level AAA compliance is easily the most strict level and can be impossible to achieve with certain types of website content. For example, sign language interpretation for multi-media content is a requirement for Level AAA compliance. This may be a serious challenge and burden to smaller businesses. However, Level AA compliance requires Closed Captioning which is certainly attainable by everyone.
Another example of the difference between Level AA and Level AAA compliance is color contrast. AA requires a contrast of 4.5:1 while AAA requires a contrast of 7:1. The text below demonstrates the difference with black text on a white background:
Level AA Compliance with 4.5:1 Contrast
Level AAA Compliance with 7:1 Contrast
For someone with good vision the difference is minimal, but for someone with vision issues this can make the difference between being able to read your website and not. Add to that, it is such a small thing to do there is no good reason to not make your website accessbile.
Obviously, some criteria are more black & white, such as having closed captioning, alt text, descriptive anchor text, ARIA attributes. Still, becoming familiar with the requirements and proper implementation isn’t something to be relegated to a collateral duty.
You can read more about
WCAG,
ADA,
ARIA to give you an idea of the scope of a compliance undertaking. You’ll then be better informed when deciding how to best move forward in your efforts to make your website accessible.
Website Accessibility Self Testing Tools:
If you’d like to do some testing of your own on your website, here are some tools you can use on a page-by-page basis to highlight any issues.
WAVE – This tool can be used either by entering a specific URL on their website, or by downloading their browser extension and running it locally.
AXE– This free browser extension will allow you to inspect the accessibility of any page in your browser.
Siteimprove – This browser extension will give you a heads-up display of all the issues on a page - or you can test via their website.
NVDA - NV Access provides a free screen reader that you can use to test how well your website performs for users with vision issues.
Bear in mind, none of these tools should be considered infallible. But they can certainly be trusted to call your attention to the most egregious issues. And that will help you decide which accessibility professional you want to trust with your compliance.
