Opening the doorway to your website also means lowering the thresholds for all visitors, regardless of their abilities or disabilities. Web accessibility is that welcome mat laid out for every user that strolls onto your digital doorstep. But it’s not simply about being considerate or inclusive. It’s about legality. The laws around web accessibility can seem intricate and intimidating, but worry not. We’ve got you covered. This guide will translate those cryptic codes into a handy checklist for you, the website owner, to ensure you’re meeting all necessary legal requirements.
- Do you understand your obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)?
- Are you familiar with the specifics of Section 508 compliance?
- Have you conformed to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)?
- How about aligning with the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)?
If these questions had you scratching your head for answers, you’re in the right place. Strap in---this is going to be an enlightening ride.
What is Web Accessibility and Why is it Important
Understanding web accessibility is fundamental for any website owner who wishes to create an inclusive digital space. Let’s delve deeper.
Web accessibility, in its most straightforward definition, refers to the practice of making a website accessible to all users, regardless of any physical or cognitive disabilities they might have. This includes individuals who are visually impaired, hearing impaired, or have limited motor skills, among others.
Why is Web Accessibility Important?
Quite simply, web accessibility is critical for a multitude of reasons:
- Inclusive universal access: everyone should have the right to access information and services online; this includes those individuals with disabilities.
- Legal Obligations: Non-compliance with web accessibility standards can lead to potential legal repercussions, as you will understand later in this article.
- User experience: Improving accessibility enhances the user experience for all visitors, not only those with disabilities.
- SEO Benefits: Many practices that improve accessibility also improve search engine optimization (SEO).
- Wider audience: By making your website more accessible, you’re effectively widening your user base.
With an understanding of the what and why, we want to equip you with the ‘how’. This article will take you through the legal requirements involved in web accessibility and present a comprehensive checklist to guide you through this process. The aim? To help you create a web space that is welcoming and accessible to all.
Legal Implications of Non-Compliance with Web Accessibility
It’s of utmost importance for website owners to remain vigilant and continue ensuring compliance with web accessibility standards because the legal implications of non-compliance can be quite severe. Let’s delve deeper to understand what legal consequences non-compliant website owners might face.
Penalties and Fines
Failing to observe the legal requirements for web accessibility can result in hefty fines. In the United States, for instance, violations of Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) could lead to civil penalties of up to $75,000 for a first violation and $150,000 for any subsequent violation.
Lawsuits and Legal Actions
Non-compliance can also open the door to costly lawsuits. Anyone who suffers discrimination as a result of a non-compliant website can launch a lawsuit against the website owner. A significant increase in such lawsuits has been noticed over recent years, particularly in sectors such as e-commerce, hospitality, and finance.
Reputation Damage
Beyond the financial implications, non-compliance can lead to severe reputation damage. In this digital age, news about organizations facing lawsuits due to non-compliance with accessibilities standards can spread swiftly, drastically impacting brand image and customer trust.
Business Loss
Ultimately, being non-compliant leads to loss of business. By not making a website accessible, the business misses out on a significant number of potential customers --- people who cannot use their site due to the lack of appropriate accessibility.
To indemnify your online presence against these potential legal implications, understanding, and implementing the required accessibility standards is critical. This not only manifests your brand as socially responsible but also makes your site user-friendly to all.
Highlighting the Key Legal Requirements for Web Accessibility
You’ve realized the importance of web accessibility and its significance in the eyes of the law. But what are the essential legal requirements for web accessibility? Here’s what you should know:
Compliance with ADA
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) mandates that all digital content be accessible to users with various forms of disabilities. This law applies to both private and public sector businesses. To meet ADA requirements, your website should be navigable and understandable to all, including those who rely on assistive technologies.
Abiding by Section 508
Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is pertinent if you are a federal agency or if you’re contracted to one. It stipulates that all electronic and information technology must be accessible to people with disabilities. This isn’t just about your website — it extends to software, hardware, and other forms of electronic communication.
Adherence to WCAG Guidelines
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is a globally recognized set of recommendations for improving web accessibility. These guidelines are categorized into three levels of accessibility standards: A (lowest), AA, and AAA (highest). It’s recommended to aim for at least level AA compliance.
Conformity with WAI
The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) lays out a roadmap for improving the accessibility of the web. This includes the development of strategies, guidelines, and resources to help make the web more accessible to people with disabilities.
In conclusion, abiding by these legal requirements not only keeps you aligned with the law, but also ensures you are providing an inclusive and accessible user experience for all visitors to your website.
Deconstructing the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Web Accessibility
Understanding the intricacies of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as it relates to web accessibility can feel like a significant endeavor, but you don’t have to navigate these waters alone. Let’s break it down together. The ADA prohibits discrimination and guarantees people with disabilities have the same opportunities as everyone else. So, how does this apply to your website?
Application of ADA to Websites
Though the ADA does not explicitly mention websites, many courts and the Department of Justice (DOJ) interpret Title III of the Act as applicable to websites, particularly those connected to businesses with physical locations. In simple terms, if your website connects to your business, it should be accessible to everyone.
What Must You Do Under ADA?
The exact requirements under the ADA for websites aren’t crystal clear, but here’s a general idea of what you need to prioritize:
- Perceivability: All users should be able to perceive the information being presented. This could involve providing alternatives for visually or auditory-impaired individuals.
- Operability: All users should be able to navigate and use your website which involves making sure the website can be navigated using a keyboard for those unable to use a mouse.
- Understandability: The information and operation of the website should be understandable.
- Robustness: Your website should be robust enough to work with current and future technologies. This involves monitoring your site to ensure it remains accessible as technology evolves.
But how do you know if you’re meeting those goals? Let’s look at a few essential checkpoints.
ADA Compliance Checkpoints
You must consider multiple aspects to ensure website compliance with the ADA. Here are a few pointers to guide you:
- Make sure your site is keyboard-friendly. This step is vital since many assistive technologies rely on keyboard-only navigation.
- Ensure all content is easily accessible. For instance, dropdown menus should be easy to navigate, and forms should be straightforward to fill out.
- Ensure all images have alt text. Alt text should provide a brief description of the image for those who use screen readers or images that aren’t loading.
- Create transcripts for video content. This feature allows deaf or hard of hearing users to understand your content.
- Ensure your site’s design is accessible for those with color blindness or other visual impairments. You can do this by choosing color contrasts wisely.
Remember, web accessibility is not a one-time task - it should be an ongoing commitment. Utilize these guidelines to make your website ADA compliant and ensure users with disabilities have equal access to information and functionality.
Section 508 Compliance: What Website Owners Need to Know
Section 508 is a federal law that requires all electronic and information technology provided by the government to be accessible to individuals with disabilities, including websites. As a website owner, it’s crucial you have a keen understanding of Section 508 to ensure your site aligns with its criteria for web accessibility.
Baseline for Accessible Websites
At the heart of Section 508 is the notion that websites should be accessible and usable for everyone, regardless of any physical, sensory or cognitive disability they may have. For instance, think about a visually impaired visitor using a screen reader to browse your website. For them, you need to make your content perceivable and navigable using non-visual means.
Technical Requirements of Section 508
Section 508 spells out a range of specific technical requirements that your website needs to adhere to. These include:
- Providing text alternatives for non-text content
- Making all functionalities available from a keyboard
- Offering user controls for time-limited media
- Creating content that’s easy to see and hear
How to Check Your Website’s Section 508 Compliance
Knowing the rules is one thing, but ensuring you’re in compliance is another. Here’s a simple checklist to get you started:
- Perform a self-evaluation. Go through your website to identify any potential barriers to accessibility.
- Use automated testing tools. Numerous online resources, such as wave.webaim.org, can analyze your site and highlight areas where it falls short of Section 508 requirements.
- Consider a professional audit. For a comprehensive review, hire an accessibility expert to conduct an in-depth analysis of your website and provide specific recommendations.
Meeting Section 508 compliance isn’t just about following the law, but it’s also about ensuring that your website offers an inclusive user experience, which benefits everyone involved.
Understanding the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) have quickly become an industry standard, setting out a clear path to make web content more accessible to all users, especially those with disabilities. It’s not only a legal requirement in some jurisdictions but also a moral duty. Let’s dive deeper into these guidelines’ critical points.
WCAG Principals
WCAG guidelines are built around four key principles:
- Perceivable: The information must be presented in ways people can perceive. For instance, providing captions for video content or using larger fonts for people who have vision impairment.
- Operable: The user interface components and navigation should be operable. In simpler terms, the website should work in such a way that it can be operated by everyone. Keyboard navigation is a big part of this.
- Understandable: The information and the operation of user interface must be understandable. Avoiding complex language, acronyms, or non-standard software that can disorient or confuse users is crucial.
- Robust: Users must be able to access the content as technologies advance (as technologies and user agents evolve, the content should remain accessible).
WCAG Levels of Conformance
The guidelines are further divided into three levels of conformance: A, AA, and AAA. Each level represents a higher standard of web accessibility:
- Level A: This is the minimum level of accessibility and requires the most basic web accessibility features to be implemented.
- Level AA: It deals with the most common barriers for disabled users and, hence, is what most organizations aim to comply with.
- Level AAA: This is the highest level of web accessibility. It is not expected that every website should achieve this level, but it’s an ideal to strive towards.
Get familiar with these guidelines and the different levels of conformance as your first step towards creating an accessible website. By doing so, you are taking strides to ensure online equality and to allow everyone to interact with your website just the way you intended.
A Detailed Look at the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
The Web Accessibility Initiative, often abbreviated as WAI, is another crucial aspect of web accessibility. This initiative, overseen by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), endeavors to provide standards for implementing an inclusive digital environment. The overarching vision of WAI is to make the web a place where people, regardless of their disabilities, can communicate, consume, and contribute content freely and satisfactorily.
WAI Frameworks
WAI develops, maintains, and promotes certain frameworks designed to make web content, apps, tools, and technologies more accessible. These include:
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG): As already discussed, these provide a standard for web content accessibility---including text, images, sounds---and for UI and visual design.
- Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG): These provide guidance for designing user-friendly authoring tools.
- Accessibility Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA): A set of technical specifications for adding accessibility information to elements that aren’t covered by standard HTML.
Task Forces of WAI
The WAI has several Task Forces---with each one focusing on a different aspect of accessibility. They include the Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG), the Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (AGWG), and the Accessible Platform Architectures (APA) Working Group.
Advantages of Aligning with WAI
Following WAI guidelines can provide numerous benefits for your website. It can:
- Improve SEO performance as search engines tend to favor sites that are accessible.
- Enhance your reputation by showing that you care about all users, regardless of their disabilities.
- Expand your website’s audience by making it accessible to a wider range of users.
- Protect your site from potential legal complications related to accessibility.
Engaging with WAI, following its recommendations, and contributing to its initiatives can play a crucial role in turning the web into a more inclusive place for everyone.
Key Features of an Accessible Website: Your Practical Guide
Creating a website that’s accessible for everyone is not just about compliance with legal standards, but is ultimately about creating an inclusive digital environment. Here are some key features an accessible website should have:
Text Equivalents for Non-Text Content
All visual and auditory content like images, audio clips, and video files should have a text equivalent. This would include alternative (alt) text for images, audio descriptions and subtitles for videos, and transcript files for audio clips.
Clear and Simple Language
The language used on the website should be clear, easy to understand, and accessible, avoiding unnecessary jargon or complex sentences.
Effective Color Contrast
Color should not be used as the sole medium to convey essential information and there should be adequate contrast between text and background colors to make it easily readable.
Accessible Forms
All forms on the website should be designed with accessibility in mind. That means using clear label text for every field, providing helpful error messages, and designing forms in such a way that users can easily navigate through them.
Navigable by Keyboard
Every part of the website should be navigable using just the keyboard. This is essential for visitors who cannot use a mouse or touchscreen due to physical disabilities.
Fully Responsive Design
The website should be fully responsive, meaning it automatically adjusts its layout based on the screen size and orientation of the user’s device.
Remember, the key is to understand that accessibility requirements go beyond simple tick-box compliance. With thoughtful design and implementation, an accessible website can offer a great user experience for all, and save you from potential legal issues down the line.
The Role of User Experience (UX) in Web Accessibility
The imperative role of user experience (UX) in web accessibility cannot be overstated. The principle behind UX and web accessibility is intrinsically linked — each one focuses on providing an engaging, comprehensible, and accessible experience to all users. Let’s delve deeper.
Inclusive Design: A Must for UX
The cornerstone of an effective UX strategy is the concept of inclusive design. It’s all about ensuring that every user, regardless of any physical, cognitive, or technological barriers they may face, can fully engage with your website.
- Inclusive design encourages the consideration of user diversity during the creation of digital interfaces.
- Such a design strategy helps break down barriers that might prevent differently-abled individuals from enjoying a seamless digital experience.
- In implementing inclusive design, it’s essential to consider factors such as screen reader compatibility, color contrast, text size, and keyboard navigation.
UX’s Impact on Accessibility Metrics
User experience directly impacts accessibility metrics, making it crucial for assessing the effectiveness of your website’s accessibility measures.
- A positive user experience often translates to better accessibility scoring, as UX considerations include ease-of-use, ease-of-navigation, and overall engagement.
- Usability testing with differently-abled users can offer valuable insight into how your website performs in terms of accessibility.
Fostering a Universally Accessible User Journey
UX and web accessibility work together to create a universally accessible user journey. It’s about more than just checking all the boxes - although that is important too. It’s about empathizing with your users and shaping their journey in the way that serves their needs best.
Bear in mind these key takeaways:
- Good UX focuses on the user, and so does effective web accessibility. This aligns both towards the goal of clear navigation, and a positive, inclusive user experience.
- Designing with accessibility in mind often leads to improved UX for all users---being accessible broadens your user base and fosters inclusivity.
- By integrating UX and web accessibility, website owners can ensure that their site is compliant and that it provides an engaging, meaningful experience for all visitors.
Ultimately, UX design and web accessibility are two sides of the same coin, ensuring your website is a welcoming place for all.
Creating Accessible Web Content: Essential Elements
Creating top-tier, accessible web content is not just about ticking boxes on a compliance checklist. It’s about truly understanding your audience and catering to their diverse needs. Here are some essential elements that you must consider:
Alternative Text for Images
Here’s a little truth: images aren’t just about aesthetics. They convey information and add context to your content. Hence, for visually impaired visitors who use screen readers, alternative or ‘alt’ text becomes a crucial liaison. Make sure to provide meaningful descriptions for every image.
Captions and Transcriptions for Multimedia
For users who are hearing impaired, multimedia content like videos and audio clips can be a barrier. But a simple solution exists: providing captions or transcriptions. Remember, full accessibility means inclusion at every level.
Logical Order of Content
Content ordering matters, and not just for harmony. Imagine a screen reader that reads from top to bottom - if your content isn’t logically ordered, the visitor’s understanding might suffer. Ensure a logical flow in your content for optimal accessibility.
Ensuring Clear Headings and Labels
A well-structured document with clear headings can be easily navigated by screen readers, aiding people with visual impairments. Similarly, descriptive labels for form fields help individuals with cognitive disabilities. These simple practices can create a world of difference.
Use of Simple and Understandable Language
Simple and clear language construct reduces barriers for people with cognitive disabilities and those for whom English is a second language. An additional benefit? It increases overall user-friendliness and comprehensibility for all visitors.
Optimizing Visual Elements for Web Accessibility
The visuals of your website can either enhance or detract from the user experience. To optimize the visual elements for web accessibility, let’s delve into a few essential techniques and strategies to employ.
Right Use of Color
Color is a significant part of web design, and its correct usage becomes crucial when it comes to accessibility. Ensure you refrain from using color as the only means of conveying critical information. Simultaneously, the color contrast on your website should be high enough to support users with color vision deficiencies.
Accommodating Zoom
For users with limited vision, zooming in for better visibility is quite common. Hence, it’s essential to ensure your website can accommodate up to 200% zoom without any loss of functionality or content.
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)
SVGs are high-resolution, scalable graphics. This flexibility makes them the ideal choice for users who may need to scale up (or down) the visual elements of your website for improved comfort and readability.
Clear and Descriptive Links
To boost accessibility, make sure the purpose of each link is clear from its link text alone. Aim for descriptive links that can be understood out of context. Avoid vague phrases like “click here” in favor of something more specific and descriptive.
Accessible Fonts
Using clear, easy-to-read fonts can make a difference to users with visual impairments. Avoid overly stylized typefaces and opt for simple and legible ones. The size of the text also matters, ensure it’s big enough for easy reading.
Offering a Text Version
If your site includes complex visual elements like infographics or charts, consider providing a text version alongside. This makes critical information available to all users, even if the visual content is inaccessible due to certain limitations.
Ensuring Your Website’s Navigation Meets Accessibility Standards
The navigation of your site plays a pivotal role in ensuring web accessibility. Having an easily navigable website isn’t just about user-friendliness---it’s also a legal requirement. Here’s a checklist to ensure you’re in the clear.
Consistent Navigation
Consistency is key when it comes to website navigation. The placement of your site’s key features such as navigation menus, search bars and any other key interactive features should remain constant across all pages. This predictability allows users to navigate your site with ease, minimizing the cognitive load and making it more accessible.
Avoid Complex Navigation Structures
Simplicity also contributes to enhanced website accessibility. This means avoiding complex drop-down or fly-out menus. If they must be used, ensure that they’re activated by a user action, like a click, rather than hover.
Skip Links
‘Skip to content’ links or other similar methods that allow users to bypass repetitive navigation links can improve the website’s accessibility. These become particularly useful for users who navigate with a keyboard or assistive technology.
Breadcrumb Navigation
Breadcrumb navigation, which shows the path a user has taken to arrive at a specific page, is another feature that greatly enhances accessibility. Breadcrumbs give users a sense of location within your site and provide an easy way to backtrack if needed.
Descriptive Link Text
The text for your hyperlinks should be descriptive and provide an accurate indication of the linked content. “Click here” and other such generic text does little to aid website navigation, especially for users with screen readers.
Site Map
A comprehensive site map can greatly aid navigation, especially for larger websites. In addition to helping all users, site maps are particularly useful for users with disabilities, providing an overview of the site’s content and structure.
When it comes to web accessibility, navigation is a crucial part of your website, but it’s also an element that requires regular review and updating. As your site evolves, remember to keep navigation as a central focus of your accessibility considerations.
Accessibility of User Input Forms: A Brief Guide
Web forms play an integral part in your website. They help enable transactions, capture information, and enable user interactions, which means they need to be accessible to all. Here are some key points to ensure your forms are accessible:
Label Each Form Field Clearly
Every field in a form should have a corresponding <label> element, providing a description of the form field’s function to assistive technologies. Screen readers, for example, use these labels to help visually impaired users understand what to enter in each field.
Order Form Fields Logically
The order of form fields should follow a logical pattern, proceeding top to bottom and left to right---ensuring a fluid navigation for keyboard-only users. Furthermore, it makes the form content more coherent and intuitive to handle.
Provide Instructions
Instructions for completing the form should be easily identifiable. These might include examples of correct input, specific format requirements, or the purpose of the form. Clear instructions make the process easier for all, including people with cognitive disabilities.
Error Handling and Validation
When a form field is completed incorrectly, there should be a clearly defined error message. The error message should describe what the error is and how it can be corrected. Automatic form validation can be a significant bonus but remember to ensure that validation messages are accessible.
- Do not rely solely on color to highlight errors — This can be an issue for color blind users.
- Make error messages specific and clear — Vague messages like “Invalid input” are not helpful. State exactly what the issue is.
- Error messages should be located near the field in question — Place the message either before or after the problematic field so that screen reader users can easily find and understand it.
Ensure That the Form Can Be Submitted Using the Keyboard
Some users may navigate your site using only a keyboard, so they’ll need an active “submit” button to send off their form input. Make sure all your forms can be submitted by pressing the enter key, foregoing the use of a mouse.
To sum up, making your web forms accessible involves a few key steps — clear labeling, logical ordering of form fields, provision of easy-to-understand instructions, and good error handling. With these in place, users of all abilities will be able to interact effectively with your website forms.
Making Multimedia Content Accessible: A Checklist
If you’re presenting multimedia content on your website---which is indeed a powerful way to engage visitors---your goal is to guarantee that everyone, including individuals with disabilities, gets to enjoy that content. This entails going beyond mere compliance and fostering a genuinely inclusive digital space. Here’s a checklist to help accomplish that:
Provision of Captioning
Captions make audio content accessible to those who are hard of hearing. Be sure to provide synchronized captions for all pre-recorded and live multimedia content that includes spoken words.
Video Descriptions
For visually impaired users, video descriptions come in handy. They provide summaries of crucial non-verbal information in videos such as actions, scene changes, or graphics. Keep in mind that video descriptions should match the existing narration or dialogue.
Control Features
Users should maintain control over any multimedia content on your website. This means offering features to pause, play, rewind, or fast forward videos. Similarly, the ability to control volume independently from the system volume is crucial.
Transcripts Access
Full transcripts allow users not only to understand the content but also provide an easy route to reference or return to specific parts. Transcripts should include spoken dialogue as well as any other relevant auditory or visual information.
Use of Fonts and Colors
In designing and displaying your multimedia content, consider the use of easily-readable fonts and ensure the colors you use are distinguishable to color-blind users. A good color contrast between text and background is key.
By following this checklist, you’ll be taking significant strides towards eliminating potential barriers, ensuring your engaging multimedia content is accessible to all. Because inclusive design isn’t just the right thing to do---it’s also a smart business decision.
Ensuring Keyboard-Only Navigation for Your Website
Keyboard-only navigation is crucial in web accessibility. It ensures that those who are unable to use a mouse or a similar pointing device can still access and interact with your website efficiently. Let’s delve straight into understanding some essential elements for achieving such accessibility.
Providing Keyboard Focus
All interactive elements of a website, including links, buttons, form fields, and menu bars, should be reachable and usable through only keyboard inputs by providing a clear keyboard focus. This means that when a user is keying through elements on a page, there should be a visual indicator marking their location.
Logical Tab Order
Logical tab order is another key principle to consider. As users navigate your site using the tab key, the order should follow a consistent, predictable flow that aligns with the visual order of the page. The default tab order specified by HTML is a good place to start, but take care to adjust it as necessary for complex page layouts.
Avoid Keyboard Traps
Avoiding keyboard traps is vital. A keyboard trap occurs when a person using a keyboard to navigate can’t move the focus away from an interactive element. This can be frustrating and prevents easy navigation of your website.
Access to All Functionality
Not just the basic website navigation, all functionalities of your site should be operable through a keyboard. This includes actions like submitting forms, opening and closing pop-up windows, and using any custom controls or widgets you’ve developed. Your users should never be forced to use a mouse to operate any functionality on your site.
Shortcut Keys
Consider providing shortcut keys for important actions on your pages. Shortcuts can expedite navigation for power users, and are especially helpful for those who may struggle with fine motor control.
Please remember to test your website’s navigation with various tools and ask people with disabilities to navigate your site, as first-hand feedback is invaluable in refining your accessibility features.
Regular Monitoring and Updates: Keeping Your Website Accessible
Ensuring your website remains accessible isn’t a set and forget process. It’s a continuous process that involves regular monitoring and updates. This constant vigilance is crucial to maintain compliance with web accessibility standards and prevent potential legal issues. So, now that you’ve put in all this work to make your site accessible, how can you keep it that way?
Periodic Testing
Just like your car needs a routine tune-up, your website also requires periodic checking. Regular testing helps identify potential accessibility problems that may crop up as technologies and standards change. This can be done through a combination of automated testing tools, manual accessibility checks, and user testing with individuals who have disabilities.
- Automated testing tools can quickly scan your site for potential issues, but they’re not a complete solution as they can only identify a fraction of potential accessibility problems.
- Manual checks help to find the issues missed by automated tools. It’s time-consuming but necessary to ensure full compliance.
- User testing with those who have disabilities offers valuable insights into the actual user experience and highlights areas for improvement.
Updating Content
As you update your website’s content, it’s essential to maintain the accessibility standards. All new pages, blog posts, or multimedia content must adhere to the guidelines. Use of alt-text for images, provision of transcripts for audio content, and correct labelling of form fields must continue with every update to ensure inclusive user experience.
Training and Awareness
Ensuring every team member involved in creating, updating, and managing your website is aware of the importance of accessibility is vital. Regular training can reinforce the importance of inclusive design, while awareness programs can ensure that accessibility stays top of mind.
Documentation and Policy Updates
Keep your accessibility policy and related documentation up-to-date. Clarify your organization’s commitment to accessibility, share your policy with staff, and publish it publicly to demonstrate your dedication towards a more inclusive web.
In essence, keeping a website accessible is an ongoing commitment, requiring regular attention and updates. With this routine maintenance, your site can continue to provide an excellent user experience for everyone, while also remaining compliant with vital accessibility laws and guidelines.
