10 Tips for ADA Website Compliance
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 prohibits discrimination based on disability, ensuring that everyone has reasonable access to all areas of public life, including the internet. Even without the legal obligation to do so, building accessible features into websites is a good business practice.
Here are 10 tips for ensuring your website is easily accessible to all visitors:
To all links, add a text description that can be read by a screen reader.
Add HTML tags with text equivalents to all material being visually conveyed, including photographs, maps, graphics, and other images.
If your website has online forms, HTML tags should describe all of the controls people can use to complete and submit the forms (e.g., checkboxes, drop-down lists and buttons).
Offer all documents on your website in an alternative text-based format, such as HTML or RTF (rich text format) in addition to PDF.
If there are data charts or tables on one of your webpages, use HTML to associate all data cells with column and row identifiers.
Add audio descriptions to all video files to provide access for people who are visually impaired.
Add written captions of spoken communication to video and audio files to provide access to people who are hard of hearing.
Design the color and font of all webpages so they can be viewed using any visitor’s web browser or operating system.
Post your website accessibility policy in a place where it can be easily located on your website.
Feature an easily locatable telephone number and email address on your homepage so visitors can report any problems with website accessibility and request accessible services and information.
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