Web Content Accessibility Guidelines & Your Business Website
While developers use a variety of compliance standards to assure accessibility for their websites, the most-used standard is currently WCAG 2.1 AA. Even if you are just learning about accessibility issues for web development, you are likely aware of WCAG and ADA compliance regulations. However, within those guidelines, there are many different levels of compliance. All of these collections of letters, numbers, and organizations can be confusing, so it pays to take a bit of time to learn all you can about web content accessibility guidelines and how they pertain to your business. Whether your company is entirely web-based or if you simply have a web presence to provide contact information and support to your brick-and-mortar business, inclusive web design should be a top priority.
The Different Levels of WCAG Compliance
For those who are focusing on the WCAG or Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, it is crucial to know the different levels so you can identify the one that will help you achieve your goals. Currently, there are levels A, AA, and AAA. Accessible Internet focuses on ensuring that our clients achieve WCAG 2.1 AA compliance standards through the use of our AI-powered solution. Each level includes guidelines that must be met in order to achieve accessibility for all users. Instead of having a single regulation, these levels help developers to achieve minimal (A), acceptable (AA), and optimal (AAA) accessibility, offering increased flexibility to allow cutting-edge technologies and complex websites to achieve compliance. The standards included in each level cover a wide span of criteria, including videos, text, inputs, and a whole lot more.
While WCAG and ADA compliance information does not provide designers with a step-by-step guide on building a website, these regulations offer details about significant parameters and limits that can be extremely helpful. For example, the Level A minimal compliance requirements include making sure that the website is navigable with a keyboard and that non-text content alternatives are provided. It also requires captioning for videos, eliminating “keyboard traps,” and other techniques that might make it difficult for people with disabilities to navigate and use. Level AA is the most-used version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), providing visitors with or without disabilities with a functional and useful website experience. Color contrast, navigation elements, proper labeling for form fields, screen reader support, and other methods help developers create an accessible website.
How to Achieve Compliance
There are a few ways that business owners and website developers can achieve compliance standards for digital properties, including standard and mobile websites. The first is the most time-consuming and costly, which is to completely design a website from scratch using WCAG and ADA compliance standards as a baseline for development. Training and education for all staff who would add content, post updates, or list products and services are mandatory to ensure compliance is maintained even after the initial website is created. Scans and checks should also be performed regularly to ensure nothing gets overlooked or the website will fall out of compliance. The second is to use a plug-in overlay program, which is cheap and easy-to-use but is not deemed effective at meeting WCAG 2.1 AA, ADA Title III, and other government regulations and industry guidelines for accessibility.
The third and easiest option for busy business owners and developers who want a comprehensive solution without investing a lot of time and money into building from scratch is to use a service like Accessible Internet. Our goal is to simplify WCAG and ADA compliance with fully integrated accessibility services designed to work with all websites, platforms, and hosts while providing continued maintenance and support 24 hours a day, seven days a week. From the moment you install this AI-powered service, it will work in the background and deliver quick compliance with no loading or lagging issues. Fully encrypted, safe, and secure, Accessible Internet offers customizable compliance recognized by the search engines in minutes to protect you from potential accessibility lawsuits. Our solution meets WCAG 2.1 AA, EAA, AODA, and ADA compliance standards, allowing for the protection of many different types of businesses, websites, and organizations.
Ready to Get Started?
Contact Accessible Internet to learn more about web content accessibility guidelines and how they could impact your business if your website does not meet acceptable compliance standards. You can contact our team by using our online contact form to learn more about our WCAG and ADA compliance solutions or to speak with a representative. You can also take advantage of our FREE accessibility scanning tool to determine whether you are at risk for litigation due to accessibility non-compliance.