Integration of Accessibility Tools for ADA Compliance

For the last few years, the need for accessibility compliance has been increasing for all types of websites. Many lawsuits have been filed against business corporate-like Amazon, Netflix, CNN, etc., for noncompliance with accessibility in various aspects of their public-fronting websites. All these rulings by the courts suggest that accessibility is a necessity now for all the websites and businesses serving the public.

AccessiBe – What is accessibility?

Accessibility refers to making a public accommodation, including the web pages, understandable and browsable for people with disabilities too. To understand accessibility, first, you need to know about the special needs of the people with disabilities. AccessiBe specifies that this includes but is not limited to the needs of people with blindness, hearing disabilities, cognitive impairments, motion difficulties, etc.

Accessibility simply means making things accessible for individuals with disabilities, but it demands a lot more than just that in a broader sense. The e-commerce and other corporate business giants now find accessibility compliance as an opportunity as it will help them reach more potential customers. W3C, or the Worldwide Web Consortium, now puts forth many accessibility guidelines that aim to enhance the websites’ overall functionality.

As we have seen in other blogs of this series, e-commerce and online shopping may continue to improve substantially over the next decade. The population of people with disabilities and special needs comes to about 10% of the actual population, which was a sector largely untapped by the conventional online businesses. By making the websites accessible to all, you can tap the potential of this consideration population too and bring in more business.

The basic requirements for accessibility

In order to ensure accessibility, here are some key considerations to make.

Make it perceivable – It means the websites need to be made presentable to all types of users in such a way that they can easily perceive the content.

Operable – The page elements like navigation and forms etc., should be operable by all types of users, including people with disabilities.

Understandable – The users should understand all the information and the web interface operations.

Robust – The content should remain accessible as technologies evolve at a faster pace. Accessibility should be robust and unrelenting.

WCAG or Web Content Accessibility covers various types of media, text, keyboard accessibility, touch responsiveness, and assistive technology compatibility. There are different components to take care of in order to ensure WCAG compliance. Foreground applications are used to handle the UI part of the design elements in order to allow persons with disabilities to access the UI elements for individual needs. The accessibility of the user interface includes colors, graphics, animations, text content, audio, etc. This also consists of search engine elements that allow people with cognitive difficulties too to understand the content.

There are background applications and tools offered by AccessiBe which make use of advanced technologies like machine learning and AI to help optimize accessibility at various levels. Some AI engines can act as solutions for the HTML accessibility challenges and help blind people to use the screen readers and people with gross motor debilities to use the keyboard and touch responsiveness to access websites. All of these make accessibility more cost-effectively and comprehensive.