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ADA

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Accessibility is in your best interest

You don’t need to know about the Americans With Disabilities Act to be fined for violating it, and the costs can be substantial. Settlements on cases of ADA website compliance typically range from $5,000 to $50,000. So what is the ADA, and what does it mean for your website?

In short, the ADA is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against those with disabilities. Though it doesn’t directly address online services, Title III of the act calls for any “place of public accommodation” to provide equal access for those with disabilities—and numerous courts have interpreted that to include commercial websites. Everyone from Amazon to McDonald’s to Harvard has faced litigation.

Designing for users who are deaf or heard of hearing.

Do

Write in plain English.

Use subtitles for videos.

Let users ask for an interpreter when booking appointments.

Don’t

Use complicated words.

Don’t put content in video or audio only.

Don’t have telephone as the only point of contact.

Designing for users with bad vision.

Do

Use contrast and readable font size.

Publish all information on web pages.

Put buttons and notifications in context.

Don’t

Use low contrast and small font size.

Burry information in downloads such as PDFs.

Separate action from their context.

Designing for users with physical or motion disabilities.

Do

Create large clickable actions.

Give form fields space.

Design for keyboard or speech only use.

Design with mobile and desktop in mind.

Don’t

Demand precision.

Bunch interactions together.

Dynamic contact that requires a lot of mouse movement.

Have short time out windows.

Here’s where it gets complicated: There are no formal government standards to ensure that websites comply with the ADA. The Department of Justice has, however, frequently referenced the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) as a standard to gauge accessibility.

Complying with WCAG isn’t a walk in the park, but we believe in making a virtue of necessity. ADA compliance doesn’t just make for a more equitable internet—it protects the interests of our clients, and that’s a responsibility we take very seriously.