Web accessibility is a hot new topic in web development and design. Including a wide range of accessible communication methods makes the internet a fair and equal platform for all users.
Accessible websites are simply those sites that people with disabilities can perceive, operate and understand. They work well with assistive technologies such as screen readers, provide alternative mediums for other impairments and allow for navigation using devices other than a mouse.
An inaccessible site excludes a potential customer base and increases the chances of a lawsuit. And… it can hurt search rankings. Building an accessible website that is usable in as many browsers and by as many people as possible can help your business – but it’s also simply the right thing to do.
Disclaimer: This post is intended to be educational and not legal advice. Any and all material should not be construed as any legal guide or regulatory literature.
What is Web Accessibility?
Let’s start by defining accessibility. According to W3C (World Wide Web Consortium),
“Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can use the Web. More specifically, Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web, and that they can contribute to the Web. Web accessibility also benefits others, including older people with changing abilities due to aging.”
At Alvarado Web Design, we test multiple browser versions that are used by our customers’ audiences. It makes sense for a website to be usable in as many browsers as possible so we don’t exclude potential customers, partners or employees.
The first thing we tend to consider when discussing web accessibility is site usability for visually impaired visitors, but visual impairment is only one disability category. Auditory, physical and cognitive impairments are equally important and must be addressed in different ways.
Individuals with these impairments can use a variety of assistive devices to help to navigate the web more easily. Accessible websites are simply those that work well with these assistive devices and strive to deliver a user experience that minimizes the need for assistive devices in the first place.
Benefits of Accessibility
Good planning is key to building high quality, usable websites. Planning your UX/UI and design work around accessibility raises the bar for detail in your work. Increased diligence ensures your website performs well for humans and robots alike.
The same details that can inform a screen reader or other assistive technologies are also helpful for the search engine robots that crawl and index your site. According to Google Webmaster Central Blog, accessible sites are more easily indexed by the Google search engines which can lead to better matches and higher rankings.
Accessibility Regulations
Different countries and government bodies have their own individual accessibility regulations and requirements. In the United States, you should be familiar with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Amended (ADA), Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the Air Carrier Access Act of 1986 and the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (CVAA).
If you are creating a website for a U.S. government agency or an entity that receives funding from the government, you also need to be aware of Section 504 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Section 508 of the same U.S. Rehabilitation Act of 1973 .
Accessibility Standards
Most regulations draw from the WCAG 1.0 and WCAG 2.0 standards as guidelines for building accessible websites. Both of these standards are built and maintained by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group, a consortium of web developers and invited experts from a variety of companies and organizations.
The WCAG working group is one of many working groups under the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). The W3C is the international standards community responsible for HTML, CSS and many other technologies that the web depends on.
The four fundamental design principles put forth by the WCAG 2.1 hierarchy are:
- Information and user interface components must be presented in a way that they can perceive.
- User interface components and navigation must be operable.
- Information and the operation of user interface must be understandable.
- Content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies.
Each principle has one or many guidelines and each of those guidelines has one or many success criteria. A website must be audited against all of these criteria to ensure conformance with the standard and most of these criteria involve multiple tests.
Non-Compliance Risks
We all want to believe that we will build inclusive websites simply because it is the right thing to do. But the truth is, sometimes our good intentions will not fit our budget or time constraints. So, why should a company spend thousands of dollars making its website accessible?
One reason is to minimize risk. Consider users who are looking for employment within your organization but are excluded because your online job database is not accessible. When these things happen, you can be found in violation of regulations.
There are no government entities that spend their time surfing the web, auditing sites and looking for websites that don’t meet web accessibility guidelines. There are no inspectors who “sign off” when your website is ready to go live. It is entirely up to your organization to make sure the job is done well. You are responsible for choosing a partner that takes web accessibility seriously and has the resources, either internal or external, to make sure the job is done right.
More than 260 web accessibility lawsuits were filed in 2016 and the numbers were significantly higher in 2017. This does not include those cases that were settled without going to litigation. Talk to your lawyers to get a real sense of the possibilities, but know that the risk is real.
Accessibility Self-Assessment
Making small improvements is a good start to reducing risk and potential damages from lawsuits. Here are a few steps you can take:
Assess your risk
Consult with your legal team and calculate your risks. Have them search public records for ongoing and recent litigation in this area.
Research the costs
If you are building a new site, have your development partners create a line item for the cost of ensuring that their work meets WCAG 2.1 standards using automated accessibility testing tools. Also, consider meeting with third-party accessibility consultants who have the resources to perform human testing. Get pricing from them directly so that they can work independently from your developer.
Do the math
You have to make a determination on whether the risks outweigh the costs. For instance, business-to-business (B2B) websites, may have more or less strain to demonstrates a clear effort to make a website accessible than consumer-facing websites. Speak to to your legal team to discuss your risk.
Set a maintenance plan
Any plan you put forth must include ongoing testing that happens on demand or automatically on a regular schedule. WCAG 2.1 is the most recent update to the WCAG standards, but as a living document, it will update as the Web advances.
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Alvarado Web Design are not legal experts on accessibility, but we understand how to develop a web presence with accessibility in mind. Contact us for more information on how we can help your business provide services to all customers.