ADA Compliance Testing Tools and Tips to Try Before You Go Pro

Today’s post is all about simplifying your ADA compliance testing.

Read on to learn about some greater ADA compliance testing tools and tips to try before you call in the experts.

Understanding your ADA Responsibilities

Enacted nearly 30 years ago to protect the rights of individuals living with disabilities, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) makes all businesses responsible for ensuring their products and services are accessible to everyone.

Before the Internet Age, the Act mostly sought to improve physical locations by regulating service animals, wheelchair ramps, and the use of braille. But now that’s all changed.

In 2019, ADA regulations also apply to your business’s digital storefront–website, social media, blog posts, and so on. Business owners whose website design violates accessibility requirements may be exposed to hefty fines. R&B star Beyonce was the latest target of a website accessibility lawsuit, but thousands came before her, and many more will certainly follow.

Everybody with a website is responsible for ensuring it’s accessible. Big businesses have a lot to lose, which makes them ideal target for predatory lawyers.

ADA Compliance Testing Tips

• Review the Website Content Accessibility Guidelines. The WCAG 2.0 guidelines are posted online here. Study them closely and do your best to address any issues.

• Add alt tags to all images and visual media. Alt tags are descriptions of photos and videos that screen readers, players, and voiceovers use to describe visual elements. These are essential for your website’s accessibility, and there’s no such thing as overdoing it–when in doubt, add an alt tag.
• Optimize your website’s style and elements. Heading, buttons, and links should all be optimized according to the Website Content Accessibility Guidelines. For example, small fonts displayed on light backgrounds are very difficult for some users to read.
• Use writing best practices to develop accessible content. Brevity, clarity, and conversational tones all make your content easier to scan and absorb. The same is true of headings, sub-headings, bullet points, and blank space; they all break your content into bite-sized pieces. When using acronyms or abbreviations, be sure to separate each letter with a period (e.g. C.I.A). This makes it easier on the eyes, and improves screen reader pronunciation.
• Audit your website using WCAG-recommended tools. There are a number of ADA compliance testing tools available online, some of which are free. Skip to the next section for some rapid-fire recommendations.

ADA Compliance Testing Tools 

• Evaluera LTD’s A-Tester checks the pre-enhanced version of your page using progressive enhancement against the WCAG’s 2.0 Level-AA conformance statements for HTML5 foundation markup.
• a11y-checker warns about any HTML Markup code accessibility issues.
• Contrast checker checks for any issues with your website color’s contrast levels, brightness, and shine, using WCAG 1 and WCAG 2 standards. It also simulates different discomastopsia situations.
• HeadingsMap shows your website’s heading structure and highlights any errors (e.g. incorrect levels) that may be present.
• com instantly checks your website’s 508 compliance and offers links to resources to improve your compliance.
• Make-Sense continuously scans static and dynamic content for any violations. It also automatically fixes minor issues in real-time, and provides links to resources needed for more intensive fixes.

Going Pro with ClickTecs’ ADA Compliance Testing 

With so much at stake, do-it-yourself ADA compliance testing isn’t enough.

If you’re ready to call in the pros., our team can help. We specialize in ADA compliance testing. Using a powerful arsenal of ADA compliance testing tools, including a 300-plus point checklist, we spot and fix violations fast.

Book a free consultation and learn more about our ADA compliance testing service at https://clicktecs.com/contact-us/