17 Adjustments You Can Make to Your Website Today That Make It More Accessible to Visitors with Disabilities
Mary Gillen
Accessibility Testing & Remediation: Websites, PDFs, Office Docs & Videos - Black Labrador Retriever Fan
Until now, website accessibility hasn't been a big concern for most business owners and marketers.
Owners of brick and mortar stores, restaurants and office buildings are required by law to accommodate the needs of customers with disabilities via wheelchair ramps, braille product signage, accessible restrooms, and more.
As a website owner, you will soon be required to have a website that is accessible as well.
Legislative changes are on the way.
By 2018, The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) will roll out official compliance guidelines concerning online accessibility for the disabled as part of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
DOJ will soon be expecting all websites to accommodate people with disabilities.
Whether DOJ will implement web accessibility standards is not a matter of "if", but "when."
However, waiting until it's the law may make your company legally vulnerable in the meantime if you aren't in compliance, as organizations such as Peapod, Target, Reebok, and the NBA have already found out.
In order to assure that websites and web applications are accessible to and usable by everyone, Web designers and developers must follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) published by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the main international standards organization for the Internet.
WCAG 2.0 Guidelines originated in 2008, and cover a wide range of recommendations for making web content more accessible. It covers an expanded range of disabilities: blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, learning disabilities, cognitive limitations, limited movement, speech disabilities, and photo sensitivity.
What to Do
Business Owners of Websites: You need to have your current website tested for accessibility so you can discover the baseline of issues that need to be fixed so your website content will be accessible to all.
Website Developers/Designers: You need to learn and integrate the WCAG 2.0 Guidelines A, AA & AAA into every website you build from now on. You may also be called on to fix the websites you have already completed.
Here are 17 adjustments you can make to your website now to make it more accessible:
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BIO: Mary Gillen has been developing websites since 1995. Need a website accessibility assessment? Mary can test your existing website to determine if it meets these accessibility standards:
WCAG 2.0: 110 checkpoints covering A, AA and AAA W3 accessibility guidelines Section 508: 15 US federal guidelines covered by 47 accessibility checkpoints
You will receive a full report and checklists of items on your website that need to be fixed in order to be compliant. These checklists hold advice that can help your web developer fix any accessibility problems.
As an accessible Website developer, Mary can also fix the problems she finds on your existing website.
Are you a Web developer who needs to learn how to fix accessibility issues? Consider taking Mary's accessible website training courses...all delivered online.
Contact Mary:
WEB: Accessible Website Services
EMAIL: [email protected]
PHONE: 508-768-8418