Provide Alt Tag for Images

For ADA-compliant websites, businesses should incorporate alt tags for images, as these provide alternative text descriptions that screen readers can relay to users who are blind or with visual impairment.

Descriptive alt text ensures that individuals who cannot see images can still understand their content and context, thereby improving their overall browsing experience and guaranteeing equal access to information.

Make Site Interactions Keyboard-Friendly

Keyboard navigation is essential for ensuring compliance with ADA website accessibility requirements, as it enables users to browse web pages, interact with interactive elements, and access content without relying on a mouse or other pointing device.

This functionality is particularly crucial for individuals with motor impairments, those who use assistive technologies, and anyone who cannot operate a traditional mouse.

Have Enough Color Contrast

Adequate contrast between text and background enhances readability and legibility, ensuring that content remains clear and distinguishable for users with low vision or other visual challenges.

Maintaining a high color-contrast ratio also benefits those with cognitive disabilities by improving text clarity and reducing strain, making it easier to process and comprehend information. Hence, color contrast is on the checklist of an ADA-compliant website.

Include Labels for Form Inputs

Ensuring that form inputs have clear and descriptive labels is a key requirement for ADA web accessibility compliance.

Labels provide essential context, helping users understand the purpose and function of each form field, which improves accuracy and efficiency when completing forms.

This is especially important for individuals with disabilities who rely on assistive technologies, such as screen readers, to navigate and interact with web content. Proper labeling enhances usability, ensuring an inclusive and accessible digital experience for all users.

Provide Descriptive Page Titles

A well-defined page title offers users meaningful insight into a webpage’s content, helping them quickly understand its purpose and context. This enhances accessibility by allowing users, particularly those relying on assistive technologies like screen readers, to navigate websites more efficiently and locate relevant information with ease.

Include Captioning and Audio Description

ADA-compliant websites also need businesses featuring multimedia content to include appropriate captions and audio descriptions.

Captions and audio descriptions enhance accessibility by making multimedia content perceivable and understandable to a broader audience. This not only ensures compliance with accessibility standards but also improves the overall user experience and fosters a more inclusive digital environment.

Have a Logical Tab Order

Another element of an ADA-compliant website checklist includes the presence of a logical tab order. A well-structured tab order ensures efficient and intuitive navigation, allowing users to access interactive elements, links, and form fields in a logical sequence.

This feature is particularly beneficial for individuals with mobility impairments who rely on keyboard navigation to interact with web content.

It also supports users with visual impairments who use screen readers or other assistive technologies, enabling them to move through website elements systematically and efficiently.

Maintain Proper Header and Column Attributes for Tables

An ADA-compliant website ensures that the header and column attributes are accessible for individuals with visual impairments. These attributes enable screen readers to communicate the structure and relationships within tables, allowing users to comprehend the presented content effectively.

Individuals with cognitive or learning disabilities can also benefit from well-structured tables, as clear organization improves readability and understanding, making information easier to process.

Provide Contextual Links

Using contextual links is a requirement for ADA-complaint websites so that individuals with disabilities can understand the destination and purpose of each link.

Unique and contextually relevant links enhance usability and navigation by providing clear, descriptive text that helps users understand what to expect before clicking.

This improves accessibility, particularly for individuals using screen readers, by offering meaningful context rather than vague phrases like "click here" or "read more."

Include Text Cues

Text cues provide additional context and clarity, particularly for users who may struggle to perceive or differentiate colors. These are beneficial for individuals with color vision deficiencies, such as color blindness, who may have difficulty distinguishing between certain colors. Moreover, they support users with visual impairments who rely on screen readers or other assistive technologies, ensuring that information remains clear and accessible to all.

Enable Zoom Capability and Text Size Adjustment

Another ADA-compliant website checklist element includes the enablement of zoom capabilities and text size adjustments. Providing these features allows users to customize the size of text and other webpage elements, enhancing readability and usability for individuals with visual impairments, low vision, or age-related vision changes.

Gather Heading Elements in Logical Order

Logical nesting of heading elements is essential for an ADA-compliant website, as it helps communicate the structure and hierarchy of content on a webpage. Properly structured headings create a clear outline of the information, making it easier for all users, including those with disabilities, to navigate and comprehend the content.

Set Page Language

Defining the language of a webpage is a crucial aspect of an ADA-compliant website, as it enables assistive technologies and language-processing algorithms to accurately interpret and present content to users.

Specifying the language for a website or individual pages ensures that screen readers, translation tools, and other assistive technologies can correctly pronounce or translate text. This enhances both accessibility and usability, particularly for individuals who rely on these tools to navigate digital content effectively.

Have Defined Frames

To make your website ADA-compliant, you need to clearly label frames to help users understand their purpose and content, improving both navigation and overall site usability.

In addition to benefiting individuals who use screen readers, well-defined frame names also assist those with cognitive disabilities by making information easier to process and comprehend.

Frames with vague or missing labels can create confusion, frustration, and accessibility barriers, making it more difficult for users with disabilities to interact with and understand the content.

Do Not Have Unexpected Timeouts

Unexpected timeouts can pose significant challenges for users who need additional time to navigate content, complete forms, or finalize transactions.

These time constraints can create barriers to accessibility, making it difficult for individuals to effectively interact with and engage with a website. Implementing flexible time limits or providing options to extend session durations ensures a more inclusive and user-friendly experience.

Make Websites Compliant with Flashing Element Guidelines

Making your websites compliant with the ADA also means that you need to be compliant with the WCAG’s flashing element guidelines to help businesses prevent seizure triggers and other adverse reactions in users with photosensitive epilepsy or sensory sensitivities.

While these guidelines primarily benefit individuals sensitive to flashing or flickering content, they also enhance the user experience for those with cognitive impairments or attention-related disorders by minimizing distractions and potential barriers to accessing web content.

Do Not Trap Keyboard Focus in Loops

Trapping keyboard focus in loops on a website can violate ADA website compliance requirements for web accessibility, as it restricts users from navigating freely through content and interactive elements using a keyboard or assistive technologies.

To maintain accessibility, businesses must ensure that keyboard focus moves logically and does not become stuck in a loop. When focus trapping occurs, users may be unable to access certain parts of the website, leading to frustration and significantly limiting their ability to engage with the site effectively.

Properly Tag Multimedia Content

Proper tagging of multimedia content is a crucial ADA web accessibility requirement, as tags provide descriptive text alternatives for multimedia elements, allowing assistive technologies like screen readers to convey content to users who cannot perceive it visually or audibly.

In addition to improving accessibility, proper tagging enhances search engine optimization (SEO) and contributes to a better overall user experience for all visitors.

Conduct Accessibility Checks

By conducting regular accessibility evaluations, businesses can identify and resolve barriers that may hinder users with disabilities from accessing and interacting with web content effectively. Prioritizing web accessibility not only enhances the user experience but also ensures the website remains ADA-compliant, in sync with legal requirements and industry standards, strengthens brand reputation and broadens the potential audience.

Have Useable Pages Without CSS

Having web pages that remain functional and accessible without CSS allows users to access and interact with content effectively, even if they have disabilities or limitations that affect their ability to perceive visual styles.

By designing websites that do not rely solely on CSS for presentation, businesses make an ADA-compliant website that enhances usability and inclusivity for all users. This approach ensures a more seamless and equitable browsing experience.

Report Accessibility Issues

Businesses should establish a clear and accessible way for users to report web accessibility issues, reinforcing their commitment to inclusivity and ensuring that individuals with disabilities have a platform to voice concerns about accessibility barriers.

Feedback is invaluable in identifying and resolving accessibility challenges, allowing businesses to enhance their website’s usability, improve the overall user experience, and demonstrate a proactive approach to meeting the needs of all users.

Make Accessible PDF Files

ADA-compliant websites extend beyond web pages to include all digital content, including PDF documents. Ensuring that PDFs are accessible allows all users, including those with disabilities, to access and comprehend the information they contain.

Accessible PDFs improve inclusivity by incorporating features such as text alternatives, proper document structure, and navigational aids. These elements enable users who rely on assistive technologies to perceive, navigate, and interact with the content effectively, creating a more equitable digital experience.