How to test a website for ADA compliance?

Did you know that in the year 2020, more than 250 US companies faced lawsuits for deploying widgets or overlays? There are specific guidelines released by the Department of Justice in the US about accessibility for disabled people. When companies ignore the DOJ Guidelines to test websites for ADA compliance, they are basically violating the norms and can risk legal repercussions. So it can be said that your website needs to be accessible for the disabled. However, deploying overlays in the name of ADA compliance is also not a viable solution. Then what is? Is there any website accessibility tool that passes the US laws or is there a sure-fire way to test website for ADA compliance? Let’s dive deep and find the answers:
 
Overview: ADA Compliance
ADA is the abbreviation of Americans with Disabilities Act Standards for Accessible Design. The standards were specified in 2010 to make websites accessible for the disabled in the US. For instance, the content on a website, such as captions, text, audio, contact forms, language, navigation and other things should meet the requirements of accessible design.
 
What happens if your website fails to meet ADA compliance?
The companies are held liable if their websites are not accessible. They will have to face a lawsuit and spend thousands of dollars.
 
Some companies use accessibility solutions like widgets or overlays to avoid getting sued. They think some sort of screen readers or keyboard navigators are enough to prevent the lawsuits.
 
However, relying on such web accessibility resources is not the most practical way to prevent suing. It’s like putting a band-aid over a deep wound and it won’t work. These tools leave you open to risks. For a long-term solution, you need to have your website manually tested for ADA complianceby a trained technician and rectify the problem.
 
How to check ADA compliance for a website?
If you need help to design an accessible website, you got to check your site for ADA compliance. There are resources that can check and guide you to adhere to the WCAG 2.1 AA guidelines for making your content ADA compliant. The resources are ADA compliance services or automated tools like ADA plugins that provide several recommendations to enhance the accessibility of a website.
 
Some tools scan a website 24 hours to offer solutions, whereas some businesses rely on manual intervention to test the compliance standards. To adhere to the core principles of WCAG 2.01for ADA compliance, manual intervention is more trusted. Stats show that your site can still face lawsuits after deploying accessibility overlay or widgets.
 
Why manual audit are better than AI Scans and widgets?
On one hand you get the skills, perception, human subjectivity from a trained technician, on the other hand you have modern AI scans. Which one should you prefer? Well, if you are assuming that machine learning offers more accurate results, you would be wrong. In case of ADA compliance testing and recommendations, a trained technician gives 100% accurate results as compared to the AI scans that only capture 30% of issues and leave you open to the risks of lawsuits.
 
Bottom line
AI fails to be sufficiently descriptive to provide legit recommendations, besides trained human minds offer a higher level of subjectivity to detect the flaws in the logical order or accessibility of a website. Therefore, for better decision-making and for protecting your website against lawsuits, get in touch with a trusted ADA compliance service that offers 100% human manual audits.