Why Have a Website?
A website is an imperative for any business during this digital era. Not having one will cause you to lose out on countless business opportunities. A website enables your customers and potential customers to get information about your business and its products and services at their convenience.
Website Access for People with Disabilities
Whereas people with disabilities (PWDs) form a significant proportion of the customer bases of various businesses, their access to the website content was always a challenge until the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the subsequent updating of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act to obligate all federal agencies to buy, make, use, or maintain ICT that is accessible to PWDs.
ADA and Section 508 compliance vpat requirements have been a game-changer in website accessibility for PDWs. Notably, accessibility is a law and, irrespective of the size of your business, if your website fails section 508 compliance, you risk being entrapped in ADA lawsuits that could push your business into extinction. With the numerous serial litigants who are scanning websites to establish those that have section 508 compliance loopholes to rely on for suing businesses and organizations over non-compliance, having a website that aligns with the ADA 508 compliance checklist is an urgent need.
Ensuring Website 508 Compliance
Review the underlying documents
To create a website that adheres to Section 508 guidelines, you should review the Website Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1) as well as the refreshed Section 508 compliance checklist for websites and web-applications as derived from Sub-Part B, 1194.22 of Section 508. A careful review of these tools will enable you to extract the key issues to adhere to when creating a website that aligns with section 508 guidelines.
Learn the available resources that can help
You’ll also need to learn about the various resources that can help you to create a website that meets ADA 508 compliance. A good example is Google Chrome’s WAVE Evaluation Tool. This is a web-accessibility evaluation tool that provides visual feedback about the accessibility of your web content. It achieves this by injecting icons and indicators into your website. The tool can help you crosscheck the accessibility issues on your website and enable you to sort out any sticky issues during the website creation process because the errors that it returns align with WCAG 2.1.
Besides the digital resources that can help you create websites with Section 508 compliance, you can reach out to service providers like ADA Compliance Proswho have extensive experience in helping enterprises deliver website 508 compliance.
Keep Content Simple and Conversational
You’ll never go wrong with creating a website that keeps Section 508 compliance in mind if you espouse simplicity in your content writing. Make your content conversational as well. These two characteristics of website content writing make it easier to scan for ADA 508 compliance.
Mind your abbreviations and acronyms
If you’re using abbreviations and acronyms in your website content, keep in mind that a person with a disability will rely on a screen reader to access the information. To help the screen readers pronounce abbreviations and acronyms properly, include periods before the letters. For example, instead of writing "USA," write "U.S.A."
Finally, the concept of accessibility for websites is still new, but it is also the law. An ADA lawsuit can be triggered by a non-accessible website. Be proactive by reaching out to experts who create websites that adhere to the 508 compliance checklist or help to make your current website 508 compliant.