Every website must be ADA-accessible. But, if your website isn’t ADA accessible, then you open yourself up to the risk of an ADA web accessibility lawsuit that will affect your business.
Going over the basic principles of web accessibility and three tests you can conduct to ensure that your website is ADA accessible will allow you to prevent your website from receiving an ADA web accessibility lawsuit.
What Are The 4 Basic Principles Of ADA Web Accessibility?
To ensure that your website is accessible by ADA standards, you must make sure that it is:
-Perceivable.
-Operable.
-Understandable.
-Robust.
To illustrate these four principles, here are four examples:
Your website must have captions and good visual presentation in order to be perceivable.
Your website must allow users to rely on just their keyboard to navigate in order to be operable.
Your website must emphasize readability and clarity in order to be understandable.
Your website must support assistive technologies in order to be robust.
If your website does not satisfy these guidelines, and you receive an ADA web accessibility lawsuit, then you must speak with a lawyer as soon as possible.
On the other hand, if your website does satisfy these guidelines, then it is ADA-accessible. Even so, though, it is wise to conduct the three tests outlined below.
3 Quick, Easy Tests You Can Use To Figure Out If Your Website Is ADA Accessible
Test 01: Disable All Images
Every browser comes with the ability to disable images. And, in order to make sure your website is perceivable and understandable, that is what you must do to conduct this test.
Right after you disable all images, you must go through your website.
If the content on your website makes sense without images – there is text describing the images, for example – then you’re good to go.
If the content on your website does not make sense without images, then this is a sign that certain aspects of your website’s design need to be adjusted.
Test 02: Disconnect Your Mouse
In order for a website to be considered ADA-accessible, it must be navigable without a mouse. You can test this by disconnecting your mouse and then navigating your website with just a keyboard.
Just as an example, you should be able to press “Space” and move through a page. And as yet another example, you should be able to press “Tab” to move through the elements within the website.
If you can navigate your website without a mouse, then it is operable by those with disabilities.
Test 03: Use The “Zoom” Function
Many browsers come with the ability to “Zoom” on the elements within a web page. To conduct this particular test, you must zoom in on the elements that comprise your website.
If you can zoom in on the elements within your website, and the text remains clear and understandable, then your website has passed this test. But, if the text isn’t clear or understandable, then changes must be made.