Web Accessibility
One-in-five users require accommodations to use your website.
What is Web Accessibility?
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 defines how to make Web content more accessible to people with disabilities.
The needs that Web accessibility aims to address include:
- Visual: Visual impairments including blindness, various common types of low vision and poor eyesight, various types of color blindness;
- Motor/mobility: e.g. 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, 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: Developmental disabilities, learning difficulties (dyslexia, dyscalculia, etc.), and cognitive disabilities of various origins, affecting memory, attention, developmental “maturity”, problem-solving and logic skills, etc.
Individuals living with a disability use assistive technologies such as the following to enable and assist web browsing:
- Screen reader software, which can read out, using synthesized speech, either selected elements of what is being displayed on the monitor (helpful for users with reading or learning difficulties), or which can read out everything that is happening on the computer (used by blind and vision impaired users).
- Braille terminals, consisting of a refreshable braille display which renders text as braille characters (usually by means of raising pegs through holes in a flat surface) and either a mainstream keyboard or a braille keyboard.
- Screen magnification software, which enlarges what is displayed on the computer monitor, making it easier to read for vision impaired users.
- Speech recognition software that can accept spoken commands to the computer or turn dictation into grammatically correct text – useful for those who have difficulty using a mouse or a keyboard.
- Keyboard overlays, which can make typing easier or more accurate for those who have motor control difficulties.
- Access to subtitled or sign language videos for deaf people.
Should I Be Concerned?
Most countries provide laws protecting the civil rights of disabled persons for homes, parks, businesses, and educational facilities. You can avoid legal exposure by making your site compliant.
Failure to comply with Section 508 of the Department of Justice’s ADA (American with Disabilities Act) Standards for Accessible Design could expose your company to hefty fines and the risk of expensive criminal and civil litigation.
Websites which do not meet WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards can be fined up to $50,000 for a first violation and $100,000 for a second, and even more for compensation of damages.
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