Need for Web Accessibility compliance and Testing the Same – AccessiBe
The population statistics in the United States show that every one out of ten is suffering from some disability. The disability may be related to various mental and cognitive conditions, neurological disorders, learning disabilities, etc. For some people, it is physical disabilities like vision impairment, hearing problems, motion difficulties, etc.
- Need for accessibility – AccessiBe
Accessibility is developing all public utilities to comply with the unique needs of the people with disabilities. There are strict legislations to ensure accessibility compliance in various countries. AccessiBe lists down some of the significant laws in different countries which mandate accessibility compliance.
- The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of USA 1990
- Disability Discrimination Act of Australia 1992
- Disability Discrimination Act of UK 1995
- Disability Act of Ireland 2005
- Accessibility compliance lawsuits
Over the last decade, several lawsuits have been filed against many companies regarding web accessibility compliance. This includes Amazon and Netflix etc. Many of the Fortune 500 companies were also being penalized for accessibility non-compliance. The case against Amazon was filed back in 2007 by the National Federation for the Blind (NFB) as their website was not compliant with the needs of the visually impaired people. Another case was filed in 2007 against Target by Sexton with NFB. All these make it essential to ensure accessibility for the existing websites and ensure the same for newly built websites before release to the public domain.
- Accessibility testing
The best way to ensure accessibility compliance is through testing the website features to see if they meet the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) standards. There are different types of accessibility testing like manual or automation testing with the help of tools. Some of the significant aspects checked during accessibility compliance testing are as below.
– Whether the website offers keyboard-only Navigation.
– Whether all the documentation and user manuals are made compliant.
– All the alt texts and media descriptions are correctly given.
– All HTML tags are correctly followed.
– Are their adequate menus for all the shortcut keys.
– Whether the website or application is supported on all devices and operating systems.
– Whether all the labels of applications are descriptively and adequately written.
– whether the Navigation of the website is as per the WCAG standards.
– Font size and scaling are compliant with the accessibility compliance standards.
– HTML tags are used properly, and all the headings and subheadings are appropriately placed.
For those confused about accessibility compliance and the current status of your websites, it is ideal to do testing of their existing websites to see the vulnerabilities and fix those. AccessiBe is one of the leading services in accessibility compliance, which the website owners can leverage, developers, designers, etc. For the business websites, accessibility not only offers legal compliance but by making it accessible to more people, you can ensure a better reach also for your content. At the end of the day everything boils down to how inclusive is your website.
