Compliance & Compassion – A Guide to Online ADA Compliance for Veterinary Clinics

Building and maintaining your business’s website involves a host of considerations, one of which is the ADA. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a civil rights law enacted in 1990 to prevent discrimination based on disability. Initially, it was unclear if this law applied to online spaces due to the internet’s novelty at that time.

However, in 2010, the ADA introduced the Standards for Accessible Design. These standards clarified that all online spaces should be easily accessible to people with disabilities. Inaccessible web content can deny these individuals equal access to information, similar to physical barriers at entrances. Therefore, prioritizing web accessibility is crucial, not just for legal compliance, but also for businesses as many services have become indispensable in everyday life and have moved online.

You might think all of this sounds like dry legal jargon and wonder why you should care. Well, not only is ADA compliance the law, but building an accessible website can also benefit your customers and your business. Here are a few reasons why complying with ADA guidelines is essential for businesses of all sizes:

• ADA compliance fosters equality. By ensuring your website meets ADA requirements, you demonstrate your company’s inclusivity, thus enhancing your brand image.
• Avoid potential legal repercussions. Keeping your website ADA-compliant helps avoid lawsuits. Ignoring accessibility issues could lead to severe financial consequences including:
  • Legal fees.
  • Possible settlements.
  • Costs to rebuild your website in compliance with ADA.
  • Potential public relations issues affecting your revenue.
• ADA compliance enhances usability. Websites focused on accessibility typically offer a more user-friendly experience for all users, not just those with disabilities. For instance, video captions can be helpful when viewing content in noisy environments.

ADA compliance on a website ensures that individuals with disabilities can access and interact with your site as easily as those without disabilities. Avoiding separate paths for those with disabilities makes your website a welcoming place for everyone. So, how is this reflected on your website? Here are some key aspects of ADA-compliant websites:

1. Accessible Content: Ensure all content, including text, images, videos, and audio, is perceivable and understandable to users with disabilities. This may mean providing alternative text for images, captions for videos, and transcripts for audio content.
2. Keyboard Accessibility: Ensure users can navigate and interact with your website using only a keyboard. This helps individuals with mobility impairments or dexterity issues access all functionality.
3. Color Contrast: Provide sufficient color contrast between text and background elements to make content readable for users with low vision or color blindness.
4. Accessible Forms: Make forms on your website easy to navigate and complete for users who use assistive technologies like screen readers. This includes using clear labels, instructions, and error messages.
5. Focus Management: Ensure the focus indicator (e.g., outline or highlight) is visible and moves logically through interactive elements when navigating with a keyboard.
6. Responsive Design: Make your website responsive and adaptable to different devices and screen sizes, including desktops, tablets, and smartphones. This ensures a consistent user experience for all visitors.
7. Accessible Media Players: If your website includes multimedia content, like videos or audio files, provide accessible media players with controls that can be operated using a keyboard.
8. Accessible Navigation: Use clear and consistent navigation menus and provide skip navigation links to allow users to bypass repetitive content and access the main content of the page quickly.
9. Semantic HTML: Use tags like <header>, <nav>, <main>, <section>, <article>, <aside>, and <footer> to structure your content in a meaningful and understandable way to assistive technologies.
10. Testing and Validation: Regularly test your website using automated accessibility testing tools and manual testing with assistive technologies to identify and address any accessibility issues.

By incorporating these principles and practices into your website design and development process, you ensure your site is accessible to all users, regardless of their abilities or disabilities.

Before making changes to your website, it’s important to determine whether it’s compliant. Although no strict rules dictate this, businesses still need to provide an accessible website for visitors with disabilities.

To ensure ADA compliance, evaluate different aspects of accessibility. Here are some steps to assess your website’s ADA compliance:

1. Familiarize Yourself with ADA Guidelines: Understand the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) guidelines and website accessibility standards. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) are typically used as benchmarks for web accessibility standards.
2. Conduct an Accessibility Audit: Use automated testing tools and manual methods to evaluate your website’s compliance with WCAG standards. These tools can detect common accessibility problems related to navigation, text alternatives for non-text content, color contrast, keyboard accessibility, and more.
3. Test with Assistive Technologies: Use assistive technologies like screen readers, magnification tools, and voice recognition software to understand the experience of users with disabilities. This practical approach can help identify accessibility and usability issues that automated testing might miss.
4. Address Identified Issues: Prioritize fixing accessibility issues found during the audit process. This may involve adjusting the website design, content structure, navigation elements, form fields, multimedia content, and interactive features to ensure compatibility with assistive technologies and adherence to WCAG guidelines.
5. Seek Professional Guidance: Consider consulting with accessibility experts, web developers experienced in ADA compliance, or legal professionals specializing in disability law to ensure a comprehensive evaluation and remediation of accessibility barriers on your website.
6. Regular Monitoring and Maintenance: ADA compliance is an ongoing process. Regularly monitor and maintain your website to address new accessibility challenges and updates to standards. Periodic audits and user testing can help ensure continued compliance and optimal accessibility for all users.

By following these steps and actively working towards ADA compliance, you can create a more inclusive online experience for individuals with disabilities and demonstrate your commitment to accessibility and equal access to information for all users.

Still looking for more information on ADA compliance and guidelines? Here’s a couple links to get you started!

• https://www.ada.gov/law-and-regs/design-standards/2010-stds/
• https://www.ada.gov/resources/web-guidance/