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Digital Accessibility You may think your business is accessible to all, but have you looked at your website lately? By Kelly Cane
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remember when a local government agency informed me that its website must be ADA compliant. I nodded my head and said, “Of course,” and immediately went back to my team to discuss. Based on my limited knowledge of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), I remember thinking, “How can a website be handicap accessible?” Like many people, ADA – in my mind – meant ensuring physical accessibility, such as elevators in public places and restrooms that accommodate wheelchair users. I soon learned that this law was amended in 1998 to include web accessibility.
By definition, web accessibility, also known as digital accessibility or eAccessibility, is the inclusive practice of ensuring there are no barriers that prevent interaction with – or access to – websites on the World Wide Web by people with physical disabilities, situational disabilities, and socio-economic restrictions on bandwidth and speed. Clear as mud, right? The idea is that when websites are correctly designed, developed, and edited, more users have equal access to information and functionality. The needs that web accessibility aims to address are:
Contributor ________ Kelly Cane is the director of marketing and co-owner of Gaslight Creative.
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Visual: Visual impairments including blindness, various common types of low vision and poor eyesight, various types of color blindness. Motor/mobility: Difficulty or inability to use the hands, including tremors, muscle slowness, loss of fine muscle control, etc., due to conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, and stroke. Auditory: Deafness or hearing impairments, including individuals who are hard of hearing. Seizures: Photo epileptic seizures caused by visual strobe or flashing effects. Cognitive and intellectual challenges: Developmental
disabilities, learning difficulties and cognitive disabilities of various origins that affect memory, attention, developmental maturity, problem-solving and logic skills. While the legislation requires all government agencies and organizations doing business with these agencies to be ADA compliant, many social-minded businesses are embracing these trends and choosing to be inclusive. The problem is that neither the ADA nor other official legislation specifies how, exactly, organizations are supposed to achieve this. In fact, according to a 2018 WebAIM global survey of web accessibility practitioners, close to 93 percent of survey respondents received
no formal schooling on web accessibility. That leaves us in a sticky situation when it comes to designing websites, apps, and other digital products. How are we supposed to know which ones need to be accessible? What kind of accessibility standard do we hold them to? In lieu of a clear set of government guidelines, following the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative remains the best option for most organizations. Its web content accessibility guidelines, known as WCAG 2.0, provide recommendations for making web content more accessible. The guidelines include three tiers of accessibility. Level A issues are the most urgent and include problems that can severely limit a disabled visitor’s ability to navigate or use the website. Level AA issues tend to be rooted in functionality, addressing areas where improvement is needed to give disabled users the full experience of a site. Level AAA issues are the highest and include fine-tuning and expanding on issues already identified as Level A and AA. While an excellent goal, full Level AAA compliance is likely beyond the reach of most websites. Level AA is considered the target standard for most commercial websites. Continued on next page.