One of the leading content management systems on the web today, WordPress has become a vital tool for businesses and organizations aiming to expand their reach to their desired audiences.
However, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) establish strategies that WordPress websites should follow to ensure ADA compliance, as well as physical spaces and other electronic and information technology.
There’s no shortage of common pitfalls in accessibility, such as missing alternative text for images, incompatibility with accessibility tools and plugins, and inadequate keyboard navigation.
Keep reading to learn more about auditing and improving WordPress websites for ADA compliance. This article defines ADA compliance, explores WordPress’s accessibility features, and discusses how to make your WordPress website meet ADA and WCAG guidelines, fostering inclusivity for all people with disabilities.
Introduction to ADA Compliance
ADA compliance refers to adherence to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a civil rights law prohibiting discrimination based on disability. For websites, this means ensuring that digital content is accessible to individuals with disabilities, including those with visual, auditory, motor, and cognitive impairments. Compliance generally aligns with the WCAG, which provides a framework for creating accessible web content.
Importance of ADA Compliance for Websites
Ensuring ADA compliance is crucial for several reasons:
- Legal Obligations: Lack of enforcement of the ADA guidelines can result in lawsuits and legal penalties.
- Wider Audience: An ADA-compliant website reaches a broader audience, including people with disabilities, thereby enhancing user engagement and other KPIs.
- Improved User Experience: Accessibility features often benefit all users, leading to a better overall website experience.
Is WordPress ADA Compliant?
WordPress is an all-encompassing content management system (CMS) with thousands of themes, some of which are inaccessible.
However, there are numerous WordPress themes with built-in accessibility-friendly features. Often labeled “Accessibility Ready,” these themes require minimal modification and include features like robust ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) roles, alternative text for images, and compatibility with various accessibility plugins, further supporting ADA and WCAG compliance.
In short, using an accessibility plugin such as WP Accessibility can significantly enhance your website’s UI, creating a more accessible site that adheres to the latest guidelines for people with disabilities.
Exploring the Accessibility Features of WordPress
With any accessibility-ready WordPress theme, you can expect several of the following features (though this is not an all-inclusive list):
- Semantic HTML structure
- Keyboard navigation support
- ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) roles
- Color contrast optimization
- Alternative text for images
- Responsive design
- Skip navigation links (or support for adding them)
- Consistent navigation and caption support for media
- Accessible forms
Key Steps to Make a WordPress Website ADA Compliant
To make a WordPress website meet ADA compliance, you must not skip any of the following steps:
Using Accessible Themes
Accessible WordPress themes come with built-in ADA-compliant features that align with the latest web accessibility guidelines.
They have correctly formatted semantic HTML, not missing alternative text for images, and are compatible with assistive technologies like screen readers.
They also typically provide high-contrast text and background colorsTo make it easier to read content. According to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), developers should aim for a contrast ratio of 4.5:1. Using high contrast colors (like avoiding pale pink text on a dark gray background) enhances readability for all users.
Adding Alt Text To Images
One of the most common accessibility issues is missing alt text. Alternative text describes images for screen reader users, which is essential for those with visual impairments. Alt text helps these users understand the context of images alongside other accessibility features like semantic HTML structure, keyboard navigation support, and high-contrast color options.
Without proper descriptions, visually impaired users miss out on essential information. Additionally, this incompatibility disrupts screen reader functionality.
The best practice is to provide clear and descriptive alt text. Instead of using a single word like “check,” consider adding context, such as “image of a customer signing a check.”
Remember, alt text should also apply to functional images and icons. For instance, an icon with a function should have an alt text like “click here to perform action X.”
To learn more about WebAIM’s Alt Text guidelines for an accessible site, visit https://webaim.org/techniques/alttext/
The WCAG 2.1 Guidelines is another excellent resource for alternative text best practices: https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/quickref/#text-alternatives
Ensuring Keyboard Accessibility
Keyboard navigation is a critical aspect of web accessibility rules, which can be enhanced further with WordPress plugins that improve a site’s accessibility.
Not everyone can navigate with a mouse, so people with disabilities often rely on keyboard shortcuts to access all website functions, including forms and menus.
To ensure keyboard accessibility, make sure that all interactive elements on a website or mobile application can be selected using a series of keyboard shortcuts such as the tab and return keys. There should also be visible focus indicators to show the visually impaired which element is currently selected.
A third area of focus is skip navigation links. To minimize repetitive navigation elements, we recommend adding a “skip to content” link to every webpage.
To learn more about keyboard accessibility, we recommend visiting WebAIM’s Keyboard Accessibility Guide: https://webaim.org/techniques/keyboard/ and WCAG 2.1 Keyboard Accessibility Standards: https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/quickref/#keyboard-accessible
Color Contrast and Readability
People with color blindness or dyslexia may have difficulty reading text if there’s little to no contrast between text and background colors.
The ADA and WCAG guidelines call for a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for standard text and at least 3:1 for larger text (above 18-point or bold 14-point). Accessibility tools often suggest high-contrast combinations, such as black on white or white on black, which improve readability. Limited contrast will affect a website visitor’s ability to discern information.
Screen Readers
It’s very important that WordPress websites meeting ADA compliance are fully compatible with screen readers.
WordPress websites are often weak in this area, particularly due to issues like improperly formatted ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) labels, lack of structured semantic HTML, other elements that may not work well with a screen reader, or assistive technologies that do not meet WordPress ADA compliance.
As an ADA compliance best practice, we recommend using ARIA labels to enhance dynamic content descriptions and implementing semantic HTML to structure your content with proper heading tags (H1 through H6). Additionally, include alternative text for images and descriptive links to ensure ADA compliance.
Testing and Auditing for Accessibility
To ensure WordPress ADA compliance and stay in line with ADA regulations, accessibility efforts must be supported by thorough testing and auditing.
Always maintain a regular feedback loop with stakeholders and conduct routine manual and automated testing to ensure that your website and mobile applications are fully accessible. A combination of both testing methods, along with quarterly or annual accessibility audits, will help ensure you’re on the right track.
Tools and Plugins for ADA Compliance
One of the best ways to increase ADA compliance is with WordPress accessibility plugins. Popular options like the WP Accessibility plugin can improve your WordPress website’s accessibility by addressing common issues, such as adding skip links, ensuring alt text is included, and adjusting font sizes to comply with ADA standards and WCAG requirements.
Let’s not forget incorporating ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) roles as part of your next effort.
Apart from accessibility, we also recommend the following accessibility plugins and tools for WordPress users:
WAVE (Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool)
Developed by WebAIM, an organization committed to accessibility best practices and ADA compliance, WAVE is arguably the web’s most popular automated accessibility scanner for checking accessibility issues. It allows website owners and developers to quickly scan websites and identify accessibility issues, which are categorized by type, severity, and other factors.
In our opinion, a WAVE accessibility audit helps address accessibility issues assessing multimedia content and alternative text use, enhancing the user experience for everyone.
Not only does it identify and categorize accessibility issues, it also provides insightful recommendations for resolving them. However, WAVE may not catch all of your website’s accessibility problems, so we recommend supplementing automated testing with manual testing using individuals and small focus groups.
Axe
Axe is very popular in browsers and CI/CD pipelines. As a widely-used accessibility testing framework, Axe is compatible with Chrome DevTools, Firefox, and other integration options. Being open-source, it can be customized by developers to achieve specific accessibility goals.
Like WAVE, Axe should be complemented with manual testing to ensure alignment with the latest accessibility rules.
VoiceOver by Apple
Available on Apple only, VoiceOver is easily our favorite built-in screen reader. It allows the visually impaired to use gesture-based navigation, read on-screen content out loud (including buttons!), and enjoy several customization options that allow for full voice and speech rate optimization.
One thing to note about VoiceOver is that it does have an extensive learning curve. However, its lean, gesture-based interface is well worth the effort for anyone with limited mobility looking for increased control over their content. For more information on VoiceOver, visit the Apple Accessibility page: Apple VoiceOver.
In short, by implementing both accessibility testing methods, website owners can quickly figure out any significant accessibility issues and work towards increased ADA and WCAG compliance with ease.
Best Practices for ADA WordPress Web Design
With ADA-compliant WordPress websites, all design elements must be considered to ensure that individuals with disabilities can easily understand site content.
Here are some essential guidelines for ADA compliance standards:
Proper Formatting
One of the best ways to convey meaning and context for visually and cognitively impaired users is to use the correct HTML structure with logical use of headings (<h1>, <h2>, etc.), lists (<ul>, <ol>), and hierarchy according to WCAG rules.
WCAG also has strict guidelines for minimum contrast ratios, which are 4.5:1 for standard text and 3:1 for large text, to improve readability.
Alternative Text for Images
Alternative text for images is very important, as it enables visually impaired users to rely on descriptive text for additional context. This even applies to functional images, like buttons.
Responsive Design
A third element of WordPress accessibility is responsive design, ensuring a website’s content structure is consistent across all devices, whether a person with a disability is on a smartphone, tablet, or switch access device.
One of the best ways to ensure responsible design is to utilize ADA-compliant WordPress themes with built-in options like color contrast selection, font sizing customization, highlighted links, larger cursors, a focus on keyboard navigation, and more.
In short, best practices for ADA-compliant web design involve the proper use of semantic HTML, appropriate color contrast, and alternative text for images. By creating user-friendly navigation (with accessible WordPress themes), organizations can further advance their ADA and WCAG compliance efforts.
Let’s Talk About Accessibly
The Accessibly ADA website widget is a leading WordPress accessibility plugin allowing WordPress site owners to address a wide range of accessibility issues on their website, accommodating users of all disabilities (e.g., visual, auditory, and cognitive).
The goal is to enhance flexibility for a broader audience, including roughly 15% of the world’s population living with a disability, by helping non-accessible websites achieve ADA compliance, creating a truly inclusive online environment for all.
Accessibly can be implemented either with a quick code snippet on your website or as a native integration with popular e-commerce and content management systems like Shopify and WordPress. It provides features like text alternatives, text-to-speech conversion, visual customization, user feedback, and more.
Plus, the Accessibly Widget now offers a free trial with no credit card required, allowing users to explore all its white-label options instantly. Pricing starts at $20 per month.
As a final takeaway, we highly recommend Accessibly for anyone looking to improve ADA compliance and build a truly accessible site, reduce legal risk, and adhere to the latest accessibility standards to ensure full and equal access for individuals with disabilities.
So, what are you waiting for? Give Accessibly a try and make your WordPress site meet ADA compliance today!
