Trent Sherrell's List: ADA Compliance

• The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and, if the government entities receive Federal funding, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, generally require that State and local governments provide qualified individuals with disabilities equal access to their programs, services, or activities unless doing so would fundamentally alter the nature of their programs, services, or activities or would impose an undue burden.
• An agency with an inaccessible website may also meet its legal obligations by providing an alternative accessible way for citizens to use the programs or services, such as a staffed telephone information line.
• These alternatives, however, are unlikely to provide an equal degree of access in terms of hours of operation and the range of options and programs available. For example, job announcements and application forms, if posted on an accessible website, would be available to people with disabilities 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• Many people with disabilities use “assistive technology” to enable them to use computers and access the Internet.
• These techniques also make web pages more usable both by people using older computers
• Two important resources provide guidance for web developers designing accessible web pages. One is the Section 508 Standards, which Federal agencies must follow for their own new web pages.
• A more comprehensive resource is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines developed by the Web Accessibility Initiative. These guidelines help designers make web pages as accessible as possible to the widest range of users, including users with disabilities. The Web Accessibility Initiative is a subgroup of the World Wide Web Consortium — the same organization that standardizes the programming language followed by all web developers.
• Information for web developers interested in making their web pages as accessible as possible, including the current version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (and associated checklists), can be found at www.w3c.org/WAI/Resources
• When navigation links are used, people who use a screen reader must listen to all the links before proceeding. A skip navigation link provides a way to bypass the row of navigation links by jumping to the start of the web page content.
• Text links do not require any additional information or description if the text clearly indicates what the link is supposed to do. Links such as “click here” may confuse a user.
• When tables with header and row identifiers are used to display information or data, the header and row information should be associated with each data cell by using HTML so a person using a screen reader can understand the information.

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• the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recognizes access to information and communications technologies, including the Web, as a basic human right.
• Accessibility supports social inclusion for people with disabilities as well as others, such as older people, people in rural areas, and people in developing countries.
• There is also a strong business case for accessibility. Accessibility overlaps with other best practices such as mobile web design, device independence, multi-modal interaction, usability, design for older users, and search engine optimization (SEO). Case studies show that accessible websites have better search results, reduced maintenance costs, and increased audience  reach, among other benefits.
• Images should include equivalent alternative text in the markup/code.
• Some people cannot use a mouse, including many older users with limited fine motor control. An accessible website does not  rely on the mouse; it provides all functionality via a keyboard. Then people with disabilities can use assistive technologies that mimic the keyboard, such as speech input.
• Just as images aren't available to people who can't see, audio files aren't available to people who can't hear. Providing  a text transcript makes the audio information accessible to people who are deaf or hard of hearing, as well as to search engines  and other technologies that can't hear.

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• Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web, and that they can contribute to the Web.
• Web accessibility encompasses all disabilities that affect access to the Web, including visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, and neurological disabilities.
• Another important consideration for organizations is that Web accessibility is required by laws and policies in some cases.
• Many accessibility features are easily implemented if they are planned from the beginning of Web site development or redesign. Fixing inaccessible Web sites can require significant effort, especially sites that were not originally "coded" properly with standard XHTML markup, and sites with certain types of content such as multimedia.
• There are evaluation tools that help with evaluation. However, no tool alone can determine if a site meets accessibility guidelines. Knowledgeable human evaluation is required to determine if a site is accessible.

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• Therefore, it is essential that the Web be accessible in order to provide equal access and equal opportunity to people with disabilities. Indeed, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006) recognizes Web accessibility as a basic human right.
• Organizations with accessible websites benefit from search engine optimization (SEO), reduced legal risk, demonstration of corporate social responsibility (CSR), and increased customer loyalty.
• A corporation might emphasize: 
   
  • financial gains and cost savings from increased web use due to  increased potential market share, search engine optimization (SEO), and  increased usability
   
  • reducing risk of legal action, high legal expenses, and  negative image
   
  • public relations benefits of demonstrating corporate social  responsibility (CSR)
   
  • benefits of an inclusive workplace that supports employees with disabilities
   
  • increased productivity from supporting and retaining older employees and their experience
• A web design business might emphasize: 
   
  • competitive advantage and financial benefits of being able to  meet increasing requests for accessible web design and development
   
  • technical benefits and long term financial benefits to clients  of providing sites according to web standards
   
  • public relations benefits of being able to support clients'  interests in demonstrating social responsibility
• Some commercial organizations might be more responsive to a social  responsibility argument than to a standard cost/benefit analysis when  committing to Web accessibility

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• The importance of various social aspects of Web accessibility is  different for specific organizations and situations. For example, one  organization's goal might be to become a leader in corporate social  responsibility, a different organization might be particularly interested in  attracting capital from socially responsible investing sources, and another  organization might be interested in demonstrating its focus on a specific  social group, such as older people.
• Identifying Social Factors for a Specific  Organization
• Web Accessibility is Essential for Equal Opportunity
• Because most web developers do not make their web pages and web tools accessible, many people with accessibility needs have unnecessary difficulties using the Web, and in some cases, cannot effectively use the Web at all. For example, when developers require mouse interaction to use a website, people who cannot use a mouse can have great difficulty; and when developers do not include alternative text for important images, people who are blind cannot get the information from images. Many of these barriers also impact older users with accessibility needs due to ageing.
• Some common conditions that do affect people's use of the Web (such as color blindness) may not be considered disabilities in many countries.
• The United Nations Human Functioning and Disability page includes links to data for different countries.
• The term "digital divide" is often used to refer to economic and social barriers to computer use for people without disabilities. Many people with disabilities are affected by the same economic and social factors, including very low rates of employment and consequently low income.
• In some parts of the world, most people use the Web only through a mobile phone, because they do not have access to a desktop or laptop. The overlap between mobile design/development and accessbilty is introduced in Web Content Accessibility and Mobile Web.

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• Implementing Web accessibility solutions often results in improved  technical performance.
• Is the organization starting a new web  development or redesign effort?
    If so, the business case can emphasize the technical benefits of  incorporating accessibility early in the project. See Reduce Site Development and Maintenance Time.