requires the use of Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance software. This software enables businesses and organizations to adhere to accessibility standards, improve user interfaces (UI), and create facilities that cater to individuals with disabilities.
With over 96% of the world’s top one million web pages currently inaccessible (source: WebAIM), website accessibility has never been more critical.
In this article, we’ll explore the importance of ADA compliance software, including its legal implications, how it enhances the user experience for people with disabilities, and our recommendations for the best ADA website compliance software and tools for your ongoing web accessibility efforts.
Importance of ADA Software
With the ADA and Section 508 safeguarding the user experience for individuals with disabilities, businesses can expect significant benefits, including reduced legal risks, an improved UI for approximately 15% of the population, and increased inclusivity.
Let’s take a deeper look into how ADA compliance can help fulfill the following:
Reducing Legal Risk
For starters,using ADA software allows you to avoid costly lawsuits by providing comprehensive solutions and actionable recommendations. Web accessibility-related claims can easily result in settlement awards ranging from thousands to several million dollars, so ADA software ensures ongoing compliance (especially with the latest accessibility standards) helps you not run afoul of regulations (e.g., Section 508 for government websites).
Enhanced User Experience for People with Disabilities
Secondarily, the ADA software allows you to identify accessibility gaps and improve the user experience for people with disabilities. Key features come through customizable accessibility options, e.g., screen read compatibility and enhanced site functionality with helpful features like keyboard navigation and text/mouse cursor size adjustments.
Boosting Web Accessibility and Inclusivity
When it comes to boosting web accessibility and inclusivity, it’s all about the stats.
According to the United States Census Bureau, roughly 61 million adults in the United States live with some disability, which is almost one in four adults.
By applying these accessibility tools, businesses can effectively expand their reach and improve several KPIs, including average site duration, total visits, average order size, and more.
It’s also all about mitigating risk. The US Department of Justice penalizes businesses that do not provide accessible environments. In 2021, more than 2,500 related lawsuits were filed in the United States, some resulting in heavy settlements.
Improving Brand Reputation and Customer Trust
Your brand can also demonstrate corporate social responsibility by effectively using ADA website compliance software and tools. According to a 2009 Accenture survey, 63% of consumers prefer to purchase from brands that are committed to social initiatives, such as promoting accessibility.
Another area that ADA website compliance software and tools can build your business upon is establishing customer trust. According to the 2021 Global Accessibility Awareness Day survey, more than 70% of people are more likely to return to a website that meets accessibility standards.
What Types of Accessibility Issues Does ADA Software Catch?
There are hundreds of accessibility issues that legit ADA software can catch.
One of the most common issues is the lack of text alternatives for non-text content. If a website has missing or non-descriptive alt tags, ADA web accessibility compliance software will definitely catch it.
Compliance software can also catch keyboard navigation issues (e.g., missing focus indicators), color contrast problems (e.g., lack of contrast between text and background colors), and inconsistent or missing form labels that are not compatible with screen readers. They do an excellent job of catching any improperly labeled forms or missing heading tags, as proper HTML heading hierarchy is top of focus with ADA compliance.
Don’t forget to provide captions and remediate pdf documents and ensure sufficient color contrast between text and background colors
Let’s remember to include ARIA attributes. If your website or mobile application heavily uses interactive elements (e.g., drop-down menus), ADA software should catch missing ARIA rules and properties necessary to make dynamic content accessible.
ADA software can help you meet ADA and WCAG web accessibility standards, promote brand inclusivity, and minimize legal risk.
Recommended ADA Accessibility Compliance Software and Tools
Here are several recommendations for ADA software and tools you can start using today:
WAVE (Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool)
WAVE is a web-based accessibility evaluation tool that allows website owners and developers to identify accessibility issues on any web page. Run it and get back an accurate reading of all errors, warnings, and alerts, complete with written descriptions and suggestions on resolving each issue.
Another feature we appreciate with WAVE is the ability to evaluate multiple pages simultaneously, which is an excellent nice-to-have for larger websites with hundreds of different pages.
axe Accessibility Checker (ADA compliance software)
Similar to WAVE, the Axe Accessibility Checker is a browser-based accessibility checker that allows developers to unwrap accessibility issues in real-time quickly. The tool includes detailed reports, customizable rule sets, and the ability to perform manual and automated testing directly through the platform.
One of our favorite features of the Axe Accessibility Checker is the ability to adopt customizable rule sets that grade accessibility based on specific user requirements. This makes it an excellent tool for organizations looking to meet accessibility standards across all types of disability types, from cognitive to mobility.
In the world of accessibility, manual and automatic testing are powerful one-two punch combos, uncovering many more accessibility issues in tandem than each one individually.
Tenon.io
Tenon.io is an overlooked accessibility checker that allows for both automated and manual testing and is integrated seamlessly into the development lifecycle via CI/CD (Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment) workflows. Tenon.io is different from WAVE and Axe as it detects accessibility issues and the need for code changes much earlier in the development process.
If you enjoy customizing testing parameters, you will enjoy this accessibility checker. In addition to CI/CD workflows, software developers can customize testing parameters to adapt accessibility grades based on user requirements, allowing organizations to comply with usability standards across different disabilities.
Proper use of Tenon.io results in faster development cycles, proof of code quality, and, not to mention, improved user experience for individuals with disabilities.
Siteimprove
Siteimprove is one of our favorite platforms. It allows websites to scan for WCAG and ADA compliance issues. You can catch many accessibility errors, such as poor color contrast and improperly formatted semantic HTML.
Incorporating many of its recommendations will also allow you to enjoy an SEO boost, which any business can appreciate for increasing site traffic and revenue.
AccessiBe
AccessiBe is one of the leading automated accessibility solutions. It focuses on making websites ADA and WCAG compliant with its various monitoring tools, which check for ongoing accessibility issues—all presented in an easy-to-read interface.
Total Validator
Total Validator checks for HTML, CSS validation, broken hyperlinks, and other accessibility issues. Although its not the most robust accessibility tool, it’s an excellent starting point for many smaller websites.
What are the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines?
The WCAG, developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), is an internationally recognized standard for accessibility. It requires all businesses and organizations to ensure that their websites and mobile applications are fully accessible to people with disabilities.
Its main premise operates on four principles: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust. Each of these principles guides how information is presented, how users navigate, and how it works with assistive technologies like magnifiers.
Additionally, there are three levels of compliance, ranging from Level A to Level AAA. Most mandates require that businesses and organizations meet Level AA standards, and there’s no harm in striving to reach the highest level of accessibility with Level AAA.
Regarding website compliance software, the software is specially designed to adhere to these guidelines, ensuring that it scans websites and returns common issues such as ensuring that they scan websites and identify common issues such as missing alternative text, poor color contrast between text/background, improperly formatted semantic HTML, and much more
In addition, many scanners emphasize keyboard accessibility, identifying elements that users cannot access using a keyboard.
Let’s remember compatibility with screen reading tools and dynamic content. Dynamic content is best served by applying proper ARIA attributes, which allow a wide range of users to understand site content.
In short, WCAG guidelines are the backbone of compliance software in identifying web accessibility issues. Their best practices and recommended methods are automatically integrated into each scan, returning results that you can instantly remedy on your website or mobile application.
Let’s Talk about Accessibly
Not surprisingly, our favorite web accessibility overlay widget is Accessibly.
Accessibly is one of the leading web accessibility overlay widgets available. It’s a lightweight widget that takes less than 5 minutes to install, either hard-coded to your website using custom code or as part of native integration on popular platforms like Shopify, WordPress, and WooCommerce.
Features Accessibly offers include but are not limited to color adjustment, text-to-voice capabilities, larger cursors, larger text, and additional reading lines to make websites much more readable. Here is a helpful ADA compliance checklist and ADA compliance page for reference.
Furthermore, Accessibly web developers are constantly introducing new features in adherence to best industry practices.
All users can enjoy a free 7-day Accessibly trial with access to all features. It is compatible with mobile phones and tablets.
Stay away from accessibility lawsuits and ensure ADA/WCAG compliance with the Accessibly ADA accessibility widget web accessibility overlay widget today. If you’re not sure you’re up to date on the latest accessibility requirements and the proper use of compliance tools for fixing accessibility issue, do not be afraid to take advantage of digital compliance tools like Accessibly to do so.
Note that all of these software tools are not necessarily competitors but rather valuable tools that can work alongside overlay widgets to identify even more accessibility issues.
All in all, these tools offer something new in ensuring digital accessibility for individuals with disabilities. Any of them will do an excellent job of increasing WCAG compliance with their robust scanning tools and recommendation engines.
