Since the world wide web became publicly consumable persons with disabilities have needed accommodations made in order to use the service in ways as convenient as people without disabilities, so many sites began exploring ways to seamlessly incorporate accessibility for the deaf, blind, and those who cannot navigate the web with a mouse and keyboard. This first began with “alternative text” which describes images and other pictures on websites for the blind and visually impared. Websites are also often designed to be controlled without a mouse or keyboard, but this accessibility is likely to only require compatibility with software which the user already has. 

Although the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in 1990, the US Department of Justice passed an extension of the ADA called the Americans with Disabilities Act Standards for Accessible Design in 2010. The extension covers websites, video games, digital film, and other digital media for public consumption. As the title suggests, these standards are just that – standards – meaning that the extension does not set any tangible standard requirements for websites in terms of accessibility.

To answer this gap in expectations from federal law, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) were developed to give businesses and webmasters a collection of ways to assure that a business’s website will comply with ADA expectations. The WCAG standards focus on four main components of accessibility – per the WCAG a website should be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. These standards allow users of all abilities to access, navigate, and understand your website across multiple platforms with ease. Steps that the WCAG suggests businesses to take in order to be as accessible as possible include developing a website with a consistent layout, including text transcripts of video elements across the site, giving images alternative text descriptions, and identifying what language your site is in within the header of the website’s code. 

While not every website is required under current ADA standards to be accessible, it is important for all businesses to have a well built and maintained website. Building your business’s web-presence with persons with disabilities in mind can help aid everyone in navigating your website, as many of the ADA expectations lead to a cleaner, more professional-looking website – even for those visitors who do not need accessibility options. Additionally, compliance with ADA and WCAG standards allow data-gathering search engine bots to explore and research your website with ease, meaning that optimizing your page’s search engine results becomes easier with ADA compliance.

For further information on the federal regulations of the ADA, click here to be taken to the federal government’s website. Included at the bottom of the site are resources for better understanding the legal jargon presented on the site. If you and your business have been considering a new website or would like to ensure that your current website has been updated to properly comply with ADA standards, please contact us at MysticMedia Dot Com – we would love to help.