This is Not a Drill: WCAG Compliance for Websites

WCAG compliance for websites, also known as website accessibility, is a critical component of what we do at Linea Creative. Websites exist to communicate important information to visitors, and website accessibility promotes inclusiveness and equal access to that information. 

When we consider all the users who will access the websites of our clients, we must take every type of individual into account, including those who have a variety of disabilities.  According to the US Census, one in every five individuals has some type of disability.

Prioritizing website accessibility is not only a legal matter, but a customer service one. You want to welcome all of your website visitors with an easily-manageable and engaging experience.

From a bottom line perspective, website accessibility work reduces your company’s risk to costly legal action.

So what are the rules of WCAG compliance for websites, and how can you make sure your company website is meeting them?

Let’s start with some background. In 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law. It is a wide-ranging, comprehensive legislation that guarantees that people with disabilities have the same opportunities as everyone else to participate in everyday life. This includes employment opportunities, purchasing goods and services, accessing public facilities, and participating in state and local government programs.

Initially, the ADA focused primarily on physical barriers that prevented individuals with varying levels of physical and mental disabilities from accessing buildings and transportation. Wheelchair-accessible ramps, audio cues at crosswalks, automated door openers, and braille-raised signs have become common in most buildings.

Over time, the ADA legislation has evolved to include access to spaces in the digital world. And there have been serious consequences imposed by the courts for sites that fail to do so.

Since the intent of the ADA is to provide “full and equal enjoyment” for people with varying disabilities, this has wide-ranging implications on websites. These digital spaces must be accessible to individuals using assistive devices such as screen readers and speech recognition software for vision impairments. Users must also have the ability to interact with a website without using a mouse or touchscreen.

Making a website accessible means removing the technical barriers that limit the content or make it difficult for people with disabilities to navigate the site. And – as is the case for physical spaces – people who believe a website violates the ADA can file a legal complaint.

These complaints have been going up sharply in recent years to force companies and organizations to comply. Unfortunately, one of the most frustrating aspects to website accessibility compliance is that there hasn’t been a clear set of United States guidelines to follow. Instead, companies rely on WCAG guidelines to show their good faith efforts in meeting their accessibility obligation.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0, and its extension, 2.1) are a set of technical standards covering a broad range of recommendations for making web content more accessible to all people. To develop these technical requirements, individuals and organizations around the world worked together in an open, collaborative process. The overarching goal of the WCAG is to provide a single, shared standard for website accessibility that meets the needs of individuals, organizations, and governments internationally.

There are 3 levels of WCAG compliance: A, AA, and AAA.

The WCAG standards and guidelines fall under 4 principles of accessibility: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. These principles and guidelines aim to make web content “accessible to as many people as possible, and capable of being represented in different forms to match different peoples’ sensory, physical, and cognitive abilities.” For each guideline, there are testable success criteria.

Organized under these principles, WCAG 2.0 and 2.1 ask website owners to follow these guidelines to make their content accessible to a wider range of people with disabilities, including blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, learning disabilities, cognitive limitations, limited movement, speech disabilities, photosensitivity, and combinations of these.

Let’s look more closely at the 4 principles.

Examples:

• Provide text alternatives for non-text content, so it can be changed into other forms such as large print, braille, speech, symbols, or simpler language
• Provide captions and other alternatives for multimedia
• Create content that can be presented in different ways (e.g., with a simpler layout), including assistive technologies, without losing information or structure
• Make it easier for users to see and hear content by, among other things, separating foreground from background

Examples:

• Make all functionality available from a keyboard
• Provide users with sufficient time to read and use content
• Design content in a way that does not cause seizures
• Provide ways to help users navigate, find content, and determine where they are on the website

Examples:

• Make text content readable and understandable
• Make web content appear and operate in predictable ways
• Help users avoid and correct mistakes

Example:

• Maximize compatibility with current and future assistive technologies on user computers and devices

In reviewing these principles, a key takeaway is that website accessibility applies to people with a wide variety of disabilities beyond those that affect sight and/or hearing. These include (but are not limited to) individuals who:

• Have lost some degree of limb function.
• Experience weakness and limitations of muscular control.
• Experience vertigo and other vestibular disorders.
• Possess some degree of color blindness.
• Have varying levels of cognitive ability.
• Are susceptible to seizures from bright, flickering lights.
• May not have the motor function to operate a mouse or touchscreen.
• Have age-related impairments.

As you can see, the WCAG covers many aspects of a website to make it more accessible to more people. The great news is that once you have an understanding of the guidelines, you’re in position to create a website that delivers a better site experience for all of your users. Plus, the guidelines often align with web design best practices – making your content available in different forms for different audiences, and making your site easy to use and technically sound.

To demonstrate your company’s commitment to website accessibility, Linea Creative can help you audit your current site. This initial process will identify all the areas on your site that should be adjusted to better meet WCAG standards. This includes navigation, design, content, code, forms, and more. The results from our audit will give you a roadmap for the necessary work scope, timeline, and budget. We can also work with your leadership team to develop your internal plan.

Common WCAG compliance issues include:

• Lack of alt-tags for images
• Videos and animation missing accurate captions
• Bad color combinations and lack of contrast between colored elements
• Missing labels for form inputs
• Content only available by mouse
• Small text that can’t easily be enlarged

You can protect your organization from web-accessibility lawsuits and make your website accessible to all users by implementing a plan to ensure your content conforms to WCAG 2.0 and 2.1.

At Linea Creative, we assist many of our clients – including businesses, universities, health care organizations, nonprofits, and government entities – by performing WCAG audits and implementing compliance standards.

Want to find out if your website is accessible under WCAG 2.0 and 2.1? Contact us to learn more.