• Orange County, CA
Facebook Linkedin Instagram
Schedule a call
List Of Common Accessibility Terms And Definitions
Posted on By Author ADA Support Categories Articles

List Of Common Accessibility Terms And Definitions

If you happen to have a website, you need to make sure that it is accessible to everyone. That means making sure the website is ADA compliant. But to do this, you will need to know the importance of website accessibility and definitions. So, what are some of the common accessibility terms and definitions?

There is a lot of accessibility terminology that everyone should know. For instance, the alternative text helps screen readers with assistive technologies. As a result, the visually impaired can use it to hear texts. Another assistive technology is a braille device. It helps the visually impaired read by raising bumps on a surface.

You need to know these common accessibility terms to build your website. It is also essential for you to implement these. Reading the full article will allow you to learn more about these. So let’s get right into it.

What Is Accessibility?

Accessibility means being able to access something. But when we talk about accessibility in this article, we are focusing on website accessibility. This means inclusive accessibility and usability for people with disabilities.

Website accessibility is important for people with disabilities. You need to meet the ADA standards when building a website. So that people with disabilities have a more inclusive experience.

According to DDIY, 61 million adults in the USA live with a disability. 59.6% of these people have internet access. Which makes it extremely important for you to understand the terminology.

Examples Of Common Accessibility Terms And Definitions

There is a lot of assistive technology and accessibility jargon. For your easier understanding, here are some examples of common accessibility terms and definitions –

  • Accessibility Remediation

Accessibility remediation means the part of the project where you make things accessible. This is the most essential part of your website during development.

Eliminating accessibility barriers for people with disabilities is the number one priority. You should identify accessibility features and implement them on your website. For instance, your top priority while creating a website is accessibility remediation.

  • Alternative Text

The alternative text refers to the description written by the developer. The texts are embedded into images. These texts are also invisible. This is important because it goes hand in hand with screen readers.

Alternative texts help screen readers read the text aloud for blind users. You can add images without worrying if you use alternative text on your website. So, alternative texts are a must.

  • Audio Browsers

To browse the web, we use different types of web browsers. Similarly, visually impaired people use special web browsers called audio browsers. It can turn text into speech. Therefore, it acts as a screen reader. This has been made possible thanks to HTML5 audio.

These browsers have speech recognition capabilities. Meaning the visually impaired can use it with their voice.

  • Braille Display

The visually impaired use a braille display for showing braille characters. You might have heard of a braille book. This works the same way.

  • A braille display converts text to braille on a screen. It does so by raising bumps via holes on an even surface. This surface comes with the display itself. As a result, the visually impaired can feel the braille texts and read them too.
  • Captions

Captions are text generators on screen that too in real-time. It is the textual presentation of sounds, like dialogues or noises in movies.

Captions help people with hearing disabilities. It allows them to understand what the characters are saying or what noises are playing on the screen.

  • Screen Readers

Screen readers are one of the most useful assistive technologies available. It reads through the text aloud to help visually impaired people.

Alternative texts help this technology in a big way. You could say these two accessibility technologies go hand in hand. Without alternative texts, a screen reader cannot describe images. So, it is essential to use alternative texts.

  • Speech Recognition

Speech recognition or voice recognition is a software application. It enables a computer or handheld device to listen to and accept vocal commands.

This is crucial because people with movement disabilities can use devices without a mouse or a keyboard. As a result, this is an important feature that devices must have to make them more accessible.

Conclusion

So, now you know what are some of the common accessibility terms and definitions. By knowing these, you can now understand the importance of web accessibility. These can help you to build a website for your business that is accessible to all. Here at ADA For Web we strive to help businesses achieve exactly that.

So, be sure to get in touch with us to get started on making your website accessible to a wider audience.

Law Firm Website Accessibility And ADA Compliance
Posted on By Author content@adaforweb.com Categories Law Firms

Law Firm Website Accessibility And ADA Compliance

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a law put into effect in 1990 with the aim of aiding millions of Americans living with a disability. It is an internet law that covers a wide range of websites and web portals. One of the most prominent of them is the law firm websites. Accessibility and ADA compliance go hand in hand when it comes to law firm websites.

ADA compliance is essential to ensure that people with disabilities are not being discriminated against and to maintain the ease of accessibility. Small businesses, firms, and organizations must follow this predefined set of criteria. It serves the purpose of standardizing cyber accessibility and ease of functionality for the masses.
Law firms, businesses, and corporations can ensure that the vast population of differently-abled people have the same access to services and facilities from their websites as the general public. For this reason, the websites must be accessible and maintain ADA compliance guidelines. It is a feature that is beneficial for both the users and the firm.

What Does It Mean To Be An ADA Compliant Website?
Law firm websites need to be ADA compliant― but how can a firm understand what it means to be ADA compliant? Simply said, your website, as well as all electronic information and technology, must be accessible to individuals with disabilities. It is a civil law that requires all users, regardless of their disability, to be included and treated equally.

Short for the Americans with Disabilities Act Standards for Accessible Design, ADA compliance is a predetermined set of regulations, guidelines, and checklists that the website must follow. In this way, the website can be easily accessible to the general people and become highly helpful to people who are disabled. ADA compliance websites can ensure to meet this aim.

Disability comes in a wide range of forms. When web designers work on formulating a website often, it is possible that the website and its services may not be accessed by people with cognitive impairments, auditory impairments, visual and mobility impairments, epilepsy, sensitivity to light flashes, etc.

These constraints deprive millions of people of the website accessibility and service it promises to provide. Especially for law firm websites, which is an imperative service-oriented establishment, they must be ADA compliant. Being ADA compliant not only ensures a better user experience but also boosts the performance of the firm’s website.
So, being ADA compliant is a government-mandated proactive effort that ensures inclusiveness and ease of accessibility to all people, irrespective of their limitations. Firms, corporations, and organizations can grow proactively. They must be aware of the ADA-compliant standards. Implementing these guidelines on their websites can ensure equality for all users.

Benefits Of Law Firm Website Accessibility With ADA Compliance

According to studies by Bloomberg Law, making your websites ADA compliant is an integral way of making the website business ready. For law firms, it is pivotal to follow and implement the guidelines as directed by the government. There are multiple benefits for the law firm and the clients of the firm when their website is ADA compliant. These benefits include-

Projecting A Disability-Friendly Brand Presence

The underlying aim of ADA compliance is to ensure inclusiveness and equality for all people. As many people can find it challenging to access different services and facilities of the website because of their constraints and limitations, it is high time for the business and firm owners to take a proactive step. ADA compliance makes the platform friendly for all users.

When the law firm’s website follows the ADA compliance guidelines, it is also projecting that the platform is disability-friendly. It ensures inclusivity for the people suffering from different physical or mental constraints. Therefore, ADA compliance is vital and highly beneficial for the law firm’s website accessibility and brand presence.

Enhancing Your Digital Customer Experience

ADA compliance ensures a high-quality user experience. Not only does a brand platform become disability friendly, but it also becomes reputable for its enhanced digital customer experience.
The customers can quickly access the service, facilities, and information they are looking for. This process can become complicated and complex to navigate without maintaining the guidelines of ADA compliance. So, maintaining ADA compliance is pivotal to ensuring an enhanced digital customer experience.

Qualifying For A Tax Credit Available

One of the critical advantages of following ADA compliance guidelines is that it will allow the law firm and the other firms following the checklist to qualify for a tax credit available. The tax credit enables the taxpayers or the tax-paying firm to directly subtract from their taxes the amount they owe.
ADA compliance makes the business eligible to access and qualify for a tax credit. The value of the tax credit naturally depends on various correlative factors of the business and its income. However, the bottom line is that ADA compliance plays a significant role in making your law firm qualify for a tax credit when the guidelines are followed.

Complying With The Civil Law

Ensuring that the websites and digital platforms are ADA compliant is a civil law mandated by the government to ensure equality in services for all. In the 2019 Supreme Court decision, a company, law firm, or corporation can face lawsuits against their websites if they do not follow the ADA compliance checklist.
So, ADA compliance is now more than just a tool for easy accessibility on websites. It is the protection of equality and inclusivity for millions of people who suffer from disabilities and constraints. Hence, it is pivotal that law firm websites follow ADA compliance. In this way, the firm can ensure compliance with the law and protect the civil rights of the masses.

Conclusion

ADA compliance is highly significant for law firm websites to follow. It allows ease of accessibility and numerous other benefits that are crucial for the firm. This task can become effective and simultaneously efficient by using ADA compliance software.

Contact us to learn more about ADA compliance and ensure that your websites are following the necessary guidelines.

Do Law Firm Websites Need To Be ADA Compliant By Law?
Posted on By Author content@adaforweb.com Categories Law Firms

Do Law Firm Websites Need To Be ADA Compliant By Law?

As a law firm owner, a fast and functional website is all you need to reach your clients more efficiently. Many even implement SEO techniques by hiring SEO experts to stay on top of their game. What many law firm sites don’t pay heed to is ADA compliance, which could be game-changing.

While websites fall under ADA restrictions, there aren’t specific laws for law firm sites. There are many reasons for that. However, that doesn’t mean you should make your site ADA compliant. And this also doesn’t mean that if your site isn’t ADA compliant, you won’t get into any trouble.

There’s a lot to explore about ADA compliance websites. There are specific criteria for making a site ADA compliant. WCAG plays an important role in the process. Also, the confusion between Section 508 and the ADA is very common. In this article, we will shed light on all of the topics, so let’s go.

 

What Is ADA Compliance?

“ADA” stands for the Americans with Disabilities Act. It is a civil rights law that ensures indiscrimination for individuals with disabilities. The goal of this law is to ensure equal rights and opportunities for disabled individuals in all areas of public life.

Such areas are not limited to jobs, schools, transportation, telecommunications, commercial facilities, etc. only. The ADA law came into force in 1990, when websites and the internet weren’t a thing. So there’s a gray area as to whether this law applies to websites or not.

There are five titles in this law covering all instances of civil life. Title II of the ADA law states nondiscrimination on the basis of disability in state and local government services. Title III of the law states nondiscrimination on the basis of disability in public accommodations and commercial facilities.

The ADA law applies to both the public and private sectors. The ADA compliance eligibility of your law firm office and your law firm website falls under two different categories. While your office must be ADA compliant, there hasn’t been any clear injunction regarding law firm sites.

 

Laws Regarding ADA Compliance Of Law Firm Websites

As I’ve already mentioned above, there isn’t any specific law regarding ADA compliance of law firm websites. So, if you do not make your website ADA compliant, you won’t be breaking any laws. ADA compliance only applies if a business has fifteen or more employees, or if a business operates more than twenty weeks a year.

While law firms operate for way more than twenty weeks, the fifteen employee clause doesn’t fit with law firms. Lawyers working in a law firm aren’t considered employees. Also, support staff like cleaners, office assistants, etc. are part-time workers, so that also doesn’t fulfill the criteria of fifteen employees either.

So, it’s safe to assume that law firm websites don’t have to abide by ADA compliance rules. However, there have been incidents of lawsuits regarding ADA compliance websites. The most notable one in recent times is the Robles vs Domino’s pizza.

In most lawsuits, the defendant has to compensate the plaintiff by paying money. It is a big reason why a sudden lawsuit filing has become a popular practice these days. In recent times, there has been an increase in ADA website accessibility lawsuits.

As a law firm owner, you might have to pay a handsome amount as compensation or fine. So, although there is no specific law regarding this matter, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Plus, making an ADA-compliant website doesn’t take much.

 

ADA vs Section 508

Many confuse the ADA with section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. While they are very close to each other, section 508 doesn’t concern general people. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act is a federal law that states that all federal agencies have to maintain their information and communication technology so that people with disabilities can access them with ease.

It applies to federal agencies and departments and their websites. Your law firm site is a privately owned business, not a federal agency, so you shouldn’t worry about section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. Here is a detailed discussion of the ADA, section 508, and WCAG.

 

WCAG For Law Firm Websites

WCAG stands for web content accessibility guidelines. It is a series of web accessibility guidelines published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). It has four principles. Following these principles is the first step towards making your website ADA compliant. Let’s take a look at them:

Perceivable: The content of your website has to be perceivable by users. While it’s not a problem for general users, people with hearing or visual disabilities can’t perceive the content.

You’ll have to make sure that visitors to your site can easily see or hear the content regardless of their disabilities. When using assistive devices or technologies, the contents must not lose their meaning.

Operable: Operable means the components of your website must be accessible by users using any type of input device. Many people can’t use a mouse, especially the elderly with Parkinson’s disease. So, enabling keyboard access is essential. You’ll also have to make sure that users get to interact with the website’s content.

Understandable: The contents of your site have to be easily understandable. Users can readily understand the meaning, and assistive technology can translate or read the content without any trouble.

Robust: Robust means your content must be rich. The interpretation should be reliable and compatible with all the latest devices, browsers, or assistive software. The law firm website is not a blog site, so this principle shouldn’t be much of an issue for you, hopefully.

You can find more details about WCAG principles and guidelines here.

 

Why Is ADA Compliance Necessary?

Besides avoiding potential lawsuits, making your website ADA compliant can bring tons of benefits to your business. Here is why ADA compliance is so crucial for law firm websites:

  1. Increase Clients

If your law firm website isn’t ADA compliant, that means people with disabilities can’t navigate your site to its fullest. They won’t be able to access all the services you offer. Those clients will look for another firm that is more inclusive to disabled people.

Thus, you will lose so many potential clients. So naturally, making an ADA-compliant website will retain those clients for your law firm which is great for business.

  1. Improves SEO

Websites are all about SEO. Your website’s SEO has to be top-notch to reach your clients faster and before any of your competitors. Making your website ADA compliant also improves search engine optimization.

Better usability is a metric that Google takes seriously. Once you implement the necessary measures for ADA compliance, it achieves more functionality and automatically ups the SEO game.

  1. Save your Reputation

When people have a question, the first place they go is to the website. The website makes an initial impression of your company. If your law firm’s website isn’t accessible to disabled people, they’ll assume your firm isn’t inclusive to everyone.

It is enough to tarnish your reputation in the special-needs community. Making your site ADA compliant can save you from disrepute.

 

How To Make A Website ADA Compliant?

There are specific criteria to make your website ADA compliant. It is a massive topic but we will cover the basics here. Let’s go:

  • Keyboard navigation should be a very basic feature for any site but many often forget about this. Elderly people have a hard time browsing websites using a mouse or touchpad on By enabling keyboard navigation on your law firm website, you are getting one step closer to ADA compliance.
  • Your website has to include alt tags. It is also known as “alt attribute” or “alt description.” This feature adds text descriptions to pictures or videos that can be read by screen readers. It is a very important feature for visually impaired visitors.
  • A text transcript is kind of the opposite of alt tags. It is a transcription of audio or video files for individuals with hearing impairment. Hearing problems are very common so you must strongly consider this feature.
  • Color contrast is for people who have a hard time distinguishing between colors. If the text and the background color are close to each other, it can be unreadable to colorblind people. So, make sure all the colors used on your site contrast with each other so that they can be easily identified.

We have our very own ADA compliance checklist to help law firms determine whether they’re website adheres to all the ADA compliance regulations. Click here to download.

 

Conclusion

The laws regarding ADA compliance of law firm websites are vague. The problem is that there’s no guarantee that you won’t be subjected to legal trouble regarding this matter. It’s very unpredictable.

The good news is that making your website ADA compliant doesn’t take much. It is highly beneficial for your business and reputation, and can even save you from losing your hard-earned money. So, you shouldn’t miss out on this. If you need any help optimizing your website with ADA compliance guidelines, contact us today

0