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Every website must abide by the terms outlined within the Americans with Disabilities Act. A failure to abide by these terms can, and likely will, lead to an ADA web accessibility lawsuit.

Going over the ways in which you can make the images on your website ADA accessible and, if necessary, speaking with an ADA web accessibility lawyer will allow you to protect yourself from an ADA web accessibility lawsuit.

What Are The Web Accessibility Guidelines Your Website Must Abide By?

Your website must abide by four basic web accessibility guidelines. And with that in mind, these four basic web accessibility guidelines are as follows:

-Your website must be perceivable.
-Your website must be operable.
-Your website must be understandable.
-Your website must be robust.

Our concern is with the third item on that list: every image on your website must be understandable, especially to those who are unable to perceive and understand images.

The Keys To Making The Images On Your Website ADA Accessible

To make the images on your website ADA accessible, there are a series of ADA provisions you must include. Each one of these provisions differs depending on the types of images on your website.

Just to start off, the different types of images that might be on your site are as follows:

Decorative images: images that serve as visual decoration for a web page.
Informative images: images that represent information and concepts.
Text images: images with readable text inside of them.
Image maps: images with multiple clickable areas.
Complex images: images with graphs and diagrams.
Functional images: images used as a link or button.
Image groups: a group of images that convey a single piece of information.

Every single one of these image types requires its own set of provisions, and, with this in mind, these ADA provisions are as follows:

-Every decorative image must have a null text alternative.
-Every informative image must have a text alternative that serves as a brief, informative description.
-Every text image must come with a text alternative outside of the image containing the text in the image.
-Every image map must come with a text alternative outside of the image describing each link.
-Every complex image must come with a complete text alternative to the information within the image.
-Every functional image must come with a description of the function that the link within the image serves.
-Every image group must have a single text alternative that describes the information within the group.

You can employ the provisions outlined above to ensure that the images on your website are ADA-accessible.

Outside of the above, you must also ensure that your website is understandable, perceivable, operable, and robust in every other way that is applicable to your website.