There are 60 million people with disabilities in the United States, so making sure they can all use your website easily isn’t just the right thing to do – it’s also good business.
Virtually all businesses can be sued if their website or application does not comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
How well does your site do? Try this validator to find out some basics.
For a good overview of guidelines and resources, see this brief presentation that one of our team members recently put together here.
As a basis, just remember the simple acronym “POUR“:
Perceivable
- Provide text alternatives for images, form elements
- User good color contrast to make it easier for users to see content
- Avoid nose, movement, and distractions on pages
Operable
- All functionality should be accessible via keyboard (tabbing, opening links without the mouse, etc.)
- Provide ways to help users navigate, find content, and determine where they are in the system / application
Understandable
- Use economical and plain use of language
- Make pages operate in predictable ways
- Help users avoid and correct mistakes
Robust
- Ensure that your application is functional across various technologies
- Verify that syntax is correct – syntax errors may not affect visual presentation but may hamper assistive technology and accessibility valuation tools