Web developers and business website owners are now taking a lot about the need for accessibility compliance of their websites. As the Titles under the Americans with Disabilities Act now cover the need for accessibility compliance of the websites and applications, it becomes a necessity now for all the websites to comply with the ADA rules. As an addendum to the ADA 1990, US Congress also passed another law, ‘ADA Education and Reforms,’ which strengthens the ADA regulations as the citizens with disabilities can now sue the businesses or other public entities on finding out any discrimination. There are many businesses, including the corporate giants like Amazon, who face lawsuits for violating ADA.
There are a lot of clauses under ADA and allied Titles, so the web developers, designers, and digital marketers all should be knowledgeable and responsible for abiding by this rule. For those who are involved in web development, we will discuss the context of ADA and the primary requirements to meet website accessibility requirements.
The context of the disabilities act by AccessiBe
The Americans with Disabilities Act or ADA is a law to protect the civil rights of individuals with disabilities and also to avoid the scope of discrimination against them. AccessiBe explains the scope of this law covers various public entities as follows:
- State and central governments as well as local administrative bodies.
- Public spaces, business centers, schools, hospitals, and also private spaces with public access.
- Employment.
- Construction codes of public utility structures.
- Telecommunication.
- Transportation etc.
As of late, we can see many forms of ADA compliance structures such as the disabled parking spots at public designations, wheelchair accessibility on buildings and shopping structures, the height of the service counters, etc.
W3C guidelines on website accessibility compliance
ADA for the internet had become so active over the last decade that one of the major lawsuits during this period was the one filed against the University of California Berkeley in 2016. Their YouTube channel had videos that did not have subtitles to cater to the needs of the hearing impaired. The Department of Justice in the United States found it a clear violation of the ADA and gave the ruling accordingly. Referring to this case, DOJ also pointed out the WCAG’s specific directives in terms of accessibility compliance guidelines for websites.
WCAG had specified the fundamental accessibility standards to be followed in website development, which the World Wide Web Consortium approves. The digital content makers and website builders need to follow the standard guidelines to make their sites ADA compliant. The latest version of the WCAG standard is WCAG 2.0, which features the major elements of a website to be,
- Perceivable,
- Operable,
- Understandable, and
- Robust.
There are another twelve subsets of guidelines under each of these four elements to ensure accessibility by covering all concerned under the ADA.
AccessiBe is accessibility compliance consulting that offers many tools and support services to enable WCAG 2.0 compliant websites. These tools can be easily and instantly integrated into the web pages, and expert support is also available from the provider to ensure that accessibility compliance is fully met.
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