The Truth Behind ADA Compliance and Why You Shouldn't Worry (Part Two!)

In this follow up blog, we are going to be continuing our discussion on ADA compliance on your website and what you need to know right now. 

Hello Summerville, and welcome back to the blog! There is just nothing like a new year in Summerville. The whole town seems to be buzzing with new exciting energy working towards this new year's goals, new projects, and resolutions. It's a wonderful energy, and we can all feel it in the office. It has helped each of us stay focused, get to work, and inspired us to keep up with our own goals and resolutions. Thank you, Summerville! Let's make the best out of 2021 together, and let's be kind to one another. Who knows what this year or any year might hold for all of us! 

One of the very first blogs we've shared this year was all about being ADA compliant, what that means, the challenges small businesses are facing right now because of it, the fact that many issues are caused due to lack of official guidance, and how the officials are going about correcting websites to ADA complaint before a bully shows up to do it first. Today, we are going to be following up with part two of that blog with even more helpful and important information to make sure your business is safe and ready to handle the changes ADA online compliance might bring this year. 

What are the best ways to make your website ADA compliant? 
Remember, you can do many of these changes yourself if you want to. Do not, we repeat, do NOT let anyone bully you into believing that they are the only ones who can make your current website or build a website for you that is ADA compliant and that you must spend an obscene amount of money to do so. You can work with us at Creative Consulting to achieve an ADA-compliant website or any top-notch design company that won't force or bully you, and our rates will be reasonable. Remember, outside of following these loosely based guidelines that have started to appear about being ADA compliant online, being ADA compliant can help position your business for long-lasting success and help to expand your customer base. While rules and guidelines are still not black and white, the WCAG (the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) and other groups are paving the way. Until then, here is a list of suggestions and tips on how to make your website ADA compliant right now. 

• Make sure to really consider the visual content you are putting on your website especially bright, fast, and flashing videos, pictures, and other elements. According to inc.com, this could cause severe physical reactions to guests visiting your website that have epilepsy and other related medical conditions. 
• All of the content on your website needs to be accessible to users who are blind, deaf, who must use screen readers, who use their voice to navigate the web, and to others who use different types of adaptive technologies when surfing the web. 
• As we have seen web use continue to go up globally, and only expect it to continue to rise, making sure that your website is ADA compliant will allow anyone to enjoy your website and will allow anyone to become a customer of your goods and services without any issue. 
• One of the best ways to check how ADA compliant your website is, is to use a WAVE web accessibility tool. Google Chrome has a great option that will help point out any accessibility issues. 
• Consider your website design for every user. Do the colors, fonts, and sizes of the fonts prevent others from reading and seeing them? Consider all of the written content on your website when thinking about this including all buttons, headings, and external links. 
• If you have audio, video, and photos on your website, make sure to provide alternatives for each. Inc.com recommends captioning for video, sign language interpretation, and transcript options for audio-only content. 
• While everyone and every business has its own style and brand, going overboard with a very detailed and crowded website might put you at a disadvantage for many of your users. Simplify your website as best you can. The overcrowding of the products you're selling or having too much content can turn off and turn away potential customers. Also, consider your contrasting colors and how you layout your text. If it is very drastic, that too can get in the way of an enjoyable website experience for everyone. 
• If you are new to this idea, it might be best to acquaint yourself with the WCAG guidelines. The most up to date version of this is the WCAG 2.1 guidelines. It states that all the content on your website must be robust, meaning it must be able to be interpreted by many different platforms devices. It states that all content on your website must be easy to understand, access, and navigate and that it is easy to operate even with a keyboard. 
• To enhance your website for those who are visually impaired, make sure that text is written and typed and not displayed as an image. This will allow all devices used by those who are visually impaired to access every part of your website. 
• Consider adding Alt Tags for everything on your website! Adding Alt Tags for audio files, videos, and every image on your website will describe the object and the purpose it is serving on your website. 
• One of the most important things, and potentially one of the easiest adaptations you can do right now, is to invest in SEO and dedicate some time to working with your SEO specialist to help make your website ADA compliant. Adding alt text for everything on your website is so important, and including keyword-rich alt text can help you meet your ADA compliance and it can help you achieve every positive outcome that SEO provides your website as well. So, in this instance, you'd be killing two very important birds with one stone. 
• Not every user online can use a mouse to navigate their way through the internet. One great tool to utilize is to make sure your website has enabled keyboard navigation to allow your users who use keyboards or other devices to navigate, view, and access your website. 
• Do not skimp on this process. It will take time, but that time is worth it to your company and those who will benefit from these changes. There is no shortcut method to becoming ADA compliant, says FORBES. Make sure to work with a company that knows what they're doing, what the current WCAG guidelines are, and that they're spending the necessary time to achieve all of this. 
• When building or implementing ADA compliance, make it very clear what language the website is written in to allow text readers and other tools to identify this and work accordingly with this information. 
• Sticking with an idea of consistency can be the biggest thing to help you. If your layout is consistently organized and consistent throughout, it can be beneficial to everyone who visits your website. 
• If you are still unsure if your website is ADA compliant after considering and implementing all of these important changes, you can consult with an attorney who specializes in disability law to make sure. 
• Make sure that whatever practices you're using to clean up outdated code on your website is top-notch and running smoothly! 

Well, readers, it looks like the topic of ways on how best to make your website ADA compliant needed its very own blog! Don't worry, we still have a lot more to talk about, and will continue to do so in our next few blogs. This topic is becoming more important every day, and we want to make sure you are prepared and informed. We appreciate you coming on this ride with us about ADA compliance. We hope that with each of these blogs, you are taking the correct steps to ensure that your website fits these guidelines. Please take this topic very seriously. While there are no official guidelines set in stone by law right now, that most certainly doesn't mean that it couldn't change soon. This is one of the main reasons why it is so important to get ahead on this topic, so once it is set in stone, you either will already be compliant with the law or you will just need to make a few adjustments! Until next time, stay safe and caffeinated Summerville!

---