The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was originally passed in the 1990s to protect Americans with disabilities from discrimination. The ADA is the reason why employers can’t dismiss disabled, but otherwise qualified, individuals from the hiring process and why stores are wheelchair accessible. The law covers a vast number of sectors, including telecommunications, transportation, and you guessed it the internet. Here in this Website Accessibility Guide, we explained the best practices and development techniques of ADA websites.

ADA Compliance Best Practices

With that background, it’s easy to see why so many companies are getting into trouble with the ADA. The law is not prescriptive in that it doesn’t give specific methods to achieve ADA compliance, especially in relation to websites.

On top of that, we’re in an era where DIY website builders are all the rage, leaving most websites at the mercy of very inexperienced pseudo-developers. If you’re a developer, many of the best practices you’ll read about below should sound really familiar they’re standard practice for most. If you aren’t sure what you’re looking for, however, things can go off the rails. Fast.

Development ADA Best Practices

We’re working from the ground up. An accessible website starts with a good development plan, including employing accessible practices with HTML, Javascript, and CSS. Here are some specifics:

Clean Code

HTML markup should be clean and organized logically. Sections should be labeled with landmarks for easy navigation. Remember that someone using a screen reader is relying heavily on your website is well-structured and well-labeled.

Text Resizing

The text should resize based on screen size and users should be able to manipulate text size independently.

SEO ADA Best Practices

Believe it or not, SEO plans cover quite a few ADA compliance best practices. Many of the foundational elements of an ADA compliance strategy are also critical to a good SEO plan. The hang-up here is that these are not one-and-done tactics. They require an ongoing commitment to ADA compliance to ensure that new content added to the website is held to the same standards. Those standards include:

Alt Tags on All Images

This is a biggie. All images need alt tags to ensure that individuals using screen readers can understand what is happening in the image.

Design ADA Best Practices

Design is a touchy subject. With brand guidelines and marketing in play, it can be challenging to implement accessible creative and design practices, but here are some things to consider:

Color

Here’s where those brand guidelines come into play. Contrasting colors are recommended to ensure a site is visually accessible. You can use a color wheel tool to see what colors might improve your website’s contrast. This is difficult with off-the-shelf themes and templates and may not be possible due to marketing constraints, but it is a good thing to keep in mind.

Social Media ADA Best Practices

Social media is the dark horse of ADA compliance. The fact is if you link to your own social media on your website, you are responsible for ensuring the content you’re linking to is also accessible.

Accessible Content

Businesses are attacking accessibility on social media in different ways. Take Melissa Hartwig, for example. She includes a very specific description of what is happening in each picture she posts alongside the caption, both on her personal page and her business pages. Instagram is now allowing users to add alt text to their images, and it’s only a matter of time before other social media sites follow suit.