People with disabilities have been overlooked by website owners for a long time, and new legislation has done a great deal in improving the accessibility of websites for all. Website owners need to get familiar with these regulations, but also take the steps necessary today to improve their website if they haven’t already. Knowing if your website is compliant or not might seem complicated if you aren’t familiar with accessibility rules, but it doesn’t have to. Let’s take a look at what the people at accessiBe have to say on how to tell if your site is ADA and WCAG compliant.
Manual vs Automated Testing
When it comes to testing accessibility, most experts would advise that you use a combination of both automated and manual testing. Many will also suggest that you think twice about hiring a web design service to do so. They are very likely to overcharge you for things you could do yourself by using the proper tools.
One of the best tools you could use to ensure accessibility would be accessiBe. It will find out any issues with your website in seconds and uses AI to constantly check your content to make sure that it still abides by the ADA and WCAG rules. And, if we can take their reviews as any indication, people are simply blown away at how simple the plugins are to set up and use. So, this is something someone even with little experience with coding could use.
Still, manual testing could allow you to catch things that you could fix immediately, and these could be all that you need to make your site compliant.
Check for Alt Text on Images
One of the things you can quickly and easily check on your own is alt text on images. All you would need would be a screen or other forms of assistive technology. People may access websites in several ways and many use screen readers to do so. Some may also use a braille display.
If you have the coding skills, you can also review the code and see if alt text is being used, and if it is, that it’s used correctly. Another thing you could do is request a free WCAG compliance audit from an organization such as the Bureau of Internet Accessibility.
Check Color Contrast
Color contrast is another very important part of making your website as accessible as possible. Contrast is a simple concept, but it’s not the simplest thing to test on your own. This is because the WCAG has very strict contrast ratios that you have to follow, and this isn’t something that you can judge with the naked eye. Thankfully, there are tools such as A11Y’s color contrast accessibility validator that you can use to get an instant read on your pages.
If you are unsure whether your website is accessibility compliant, these are some of the things that you can do immediately. It is your responsibility to always make your site as accessible as you can for the people visiting.
