Website Accessibility: What is It and How Is It Accomplished?

By now, everyone has had experience with or at least heard of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which is a law that prohibits discrimination and ensures equal opportunity for persons with disabilities regarding employment, federal, state and local government services. This includes public accommodations, commercial facilities, and transportation. The A.D.A. REQUIRES that various government entities make reasonable accommodations to accomplish this goal. Specifically, Section 508 under the A.D.A. covers items such as PDF documents, Transcription of Videos, and Websites.

In 1998 Congress amended the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to require Federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. Information that is not accessible interferes with the ability to obtain and use information quickly and easily. Section 508 was enacted to eliminate barriers in information technology, thus opening new doors of opportunity and inclusion for people with disabilities. Access to information published and distributed on the World Wide Web is also part of this act. (For more information, please go to Http://www.section508.gov/section508-laws).

 In this article, I will be briefly discussing WCAG, also known as Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and some steps website owners can take, become more accessible to people with disabilities. (For further introduction and overview, please go to https://www.w3.org/WAI/intro?wcag.php)

As mentioned previously, Federal, State and Local governments are required to be 508 compliant. This also includes government vendors, or any entity providing materials or services to the government. As of right now, 508 compliance is starting to include some private sector businesses, such as airlines, learning institutions, as well as healthcare organizations.

Private sector businesses are not currently required to be 508 compliant, however, it is considered a “best business practice”, because smart business people know that by being or becoming 508 compliant, they can avoid discrimination suits, as well as reach a broader audience, which also means more customers. Some businesses have been proactive, by making documents such as PDF’s compliant. This is a good start, but it should be continued by making your business website compliant as well.

First and foremost, accessibility should be considered prior to building a website. Avoiding common mistakes will help, such as bad graphical images, misspellings in content, links that do not work, or having to go 4 or 5 pages deep to find the information the potential customer is looking for.

  It is most probable that businesses already have an existing website, which may need some adjustments. You can utilize this link to check your website: https://wave.webaim.org/. This will show you items that may need attention, such as documents, graphics or links.

You may also download NVDA which will assist you to understand how a person with a disability may experience your website. (https://www.nvaccess.org/download/ )

The road to website accessibility does not have to be a difficult or expensive one. Here are a few steps to start with. Keep a notepad handy, and utilizing the basic tools I have provided, audit your website and, take notes of where improvements need to be made.

Some additional tips:

·        Identify and note PDF’s, extra graphics, hand-outs and additional non-HTML content that may need to be handled separately. Note what programs the documents etc. were created in. Later, this may assist you in converting and tagging for an assistive reader.

·         Pay attention to back ground screens as screen readers often have a difficult time with these.

·        Assess any video content that may need captioning.

·        Make sure your website includes a site-map. It is very helpful if the overall structure is logical and reads in the correct order.

·        Manually test any difficult areas with a screen reader.

·        Identify exact locations within the website where there are issues. This will make it easier for your IT to identify any HTML codes that need to be changed.

·        Set a schedule for auditing. Websites constantly change with the addition of new material, links, pictures, videos and other information. Monitoring the website with regular audits will help you stay in front of any potential issues.

·        As a final note- accessibility requirements do change. One way to keep up with the changes is to visit this website periodically: https://www.section508.gov/search/node/WCAG

Whether this is a new business website or an existing one, even with minimal experience on the web, be proactive! There are steps you can take to support a culture of accessibility and inclusion for your organization!