ADA compliance or the Americans with Disabilities Act Standards for Accessible Design is an act that the federal government passed back in 1990. It is meant to prevent discrimination against people who need certain physical accommodations while offering them protection.
Although ADA compliance used to focus on wheelchair ramps, elevators, and anything of the sort, now it has also been implemented for websites.
Online sites also have to be ADA compliant. This means that they have to be accessible and suitable for everyone, including people with disabilities.
How can you find out if a website is ADA compliant? Let’s see how you can test your platform.
1 – Using Free Testing Tools
The Internet itself makes website accessibility testing very easy and you don’t even have to spend a lot of money on it. All you have to do is use some checker tools for ADA compliance, as some are free of charge. You can find them online.
WAVE and Lighthouse are two of the most popular options. They check the size of the text, the color contrast of the platform, and various other aspects.
But these are not the only options you have available. If you want to check the whole website for ADA compliance versus one page at a time as WAVE and Lighthouse do, you can look for other options.
WordPress sites can use an ADA compliance plugin, making the work easier. As for other sites, you can find the ideal ADA compliance testing tool on the World Wide Web Consortium.
2 – Consider Professional Audits
You can also look towards professional ADA compliance testing. This is something you may want to consider when you don’t know how to test the site with the tools available or you simply don’t have the time to do that. Of course, you need to pay a specialist for this type of audit.
A professional agency or individual will analyze the accessibility of the site by assessing the platform using WCAG. If they find out that your website isn’t ADA compliant, they will give you some advice on how you can change this. Some agencies will apply the changes themselves.
3 – Choose Between Manual and Automated ADA Compliance Testing
When it comes to ADA compliance testing, you have two options: manual or automated testing.
With manual tests for accessibility, you will do all the work yourself – this means the evaluation will involve human intervention. Manual testing is usually the most effective, as you can go over all the aspects of ADA compliance that need fixing.
On the other hand, automated testing involves an automated process performed by special software. It can be convenient when you need a fast and cheap evaluation.
But this is often less accurate than manual intervention, mainly because automated tools are unable to check a website for each success criterion of the WCAG. Testing manually is ideal if you want the best accessibility for your platform.
Final Thoughts
An ADA-compliant website will ensure people with disabilities can enjoy the best experience online.
Find the best solution for ADA compliance testing and you will be able to obtain and maintain a website that is accessible and safe for everyone.
