Bless the world wide web for the massive amount of information we are able to access each day. We are grateful for being able to reach everything from daily news updates to every funny cat video in existence. At Mad Genius, we believe that the internet should be accessible for everyone to utilize. To that end, we are mindful of ADA on every website we build.
If you have questions about your website and ADA compliance, Mad Genius has answered some common questions we receive about creating and maintaining accessible websites.
What is ADA?
ADA stands for the Americans with Disabilities Act. It sets regulations for web content to be available to those with disabilities. These disabilities may include deafness, blindness, and/or anything else that requires a user to navigate by voice, screen readers, or other assistive technologies.
Why Should We Pursue ADA Compliance?
The first, most obvious reason is that the web should be freely available and accessible to all. It’s the right thing to do.
In addition, the total number of ADA lawsuits has been growing in recent years. These lawsuits can cost a minimum of thousands of dollars, and really have no maximum cap. If the accessible-to-all carrot doesn’t motivate you, the potential-lawsuit stick should.
How Do We Improve Accessibility on Our Website?
Great question! This can be done in several different ways. At Mad Genius, we focus on being “ADA mindful” with every website we build. There is a difference, however, in being ADA mindful and being ADA compliant.
ADA Mindfulness
Being ADA mindful is when we ask, “How can we make this content accessible to those with disabilities?” This mindset guides us to structure our designs and coding in a way that makes utilization of the website easier for everyone. There are things, however, that are just too time consuming to include as a standard in every project. This is where we journey into ADA compliance.
ADA Compliance and WCAG
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 is the international industry standard for website accessibility. These guidelines are formalized under United States federal law as our accessibility standard. There are three levels of conformance to WCAG: A, AA, and AAA.
Level A
Level A includes basic functionality and doesn’t offer many of the extra features needed for accessibility purposes.
This includes features stuff like:
- Alt text on images
- Replacing <b> and <i> tags with <strong> and <em>
- Video/audio content that includes captions/transcripts
Level AA
The next level up is AA. This includes everything in level A, plus a more in-depth list of features, design elements, and coding structures. When pursuing ADA compliance, the most common level clients attempt to achieve is AA. This is the level that most businesses are legally required to accomplish (and the above lawsuits often reference).
This includes features such as:
- Specific contrast ratios between colors (4.5:1)
- The ability to resize text on pages up to 200%
- Users are given suggestions on how to solve input errors in forms
- Underlined text that is not a link is removed
Level AAA
The final and by far most extensive level of compliance is AAA. This includes everything in levels A and AA, and touches every aspect of the website. By far the most extensive of the three, this is a very high and difficult to achieve level of compliance.
This level includes highly advanced accessibility features such as:
- Prerecorded sign language for videos
- An increased 7:1 contrast ratio for all colors
- Fully accessible by keyboard only with no exceptions
- No interruptions
- No content flashes more than three times per second
- Pronunciation explanations for difficult words
- A 9-year-old reading level
Intense, right?
Many of our clients are focusing on making their websites ADA compliant. Many businesses are actually required to reach level AA, and have asked about what that means. Beyond the above, reaching level AA compliance is an honorable goal that can make your website accessible to many who otherwise would be unable to utilize it (read: it’s just the right thing to do).
What ADA Compliance Level Should I Aim For?
Our answer to this questions is almost always, “it depends.” The requirements can vary based on your specific business and customer base, so we recommend consulting your choice of legal advisor(s) to assist with this decision.
The Process
So, you’ve thought long and hard, consulted with your trusted legal counsel, and know which option is for you. Great! This is where the rubber meets the road.
Building a New Website
Building a new website is, in many ways, a much simpler method of achieving ADA compliance. If you don’t have a website or want to outshine your competition with our “genius touch,” this is the option for you.
Rather than renovating existing code to achieve certain goals, we have the ability to design a completely custom site with ADA compliance in mind to ensure the most efficient user experience possible.
Ongoing Monitoring
Should you choose to pursue a level of ADA compliance (such as AA), the process will be an ongoing one. ADA compliance requires that all content is ADA compliant. While we can initially build the website and check the necessary boxes, a monitoring service is necessary to ensure all new content and features are ADA compliant. Mad Genius can help you implement and utilize a monitoring service that will produce reports and direct you when changes need to be made.
The House That Mad Built
When Mad Genius designs and develops a website, we compare it to a house. With a custom built home the layout, features, and interior design possibilities are endless—you can build exactly what you want and need without any obstructions!
With ADA the same rules apply; building a website from scratch allows you to achieve goals that would be impossible or time consuming when “renovating.”
Upgrading an Existing Website
The first step to upgrade your site’s ADA compliance is a meeting with us. We’ll conduct a review of your current website. After we have a baseline, we can discuss what it would take to improve the site, and we will put forward several options to move forward.
Renovating existing websites can be the most cost effective option at times, but not always! Sometimes renovations result in higher costs than just building a new website completely. We have good news though: we can help you figure out which option fits your needs and budget.
Let’s Get Started!
Let’s talk about your website’s accessibility needs. Get in touch with our team by calling us at (601) 605-6234 or sending us a message.