Local government websites are a powerful tool to inform and engage citizens. These websites must be designed to meet the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). That is, local government websites must provide individuals with disabilities equal online access.

To help ensure your current website is ADA compliant, take a look at these 6 tips from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0:

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is developed through the W3C process in cooperation with individuals and organizations around the world, with a goal of proving a single shared standard for web content accessibility that meets the needs of individuals, organizations, and governments internationally.

READABILITY

Visitors to your web pages need to be able to easily read and understand the pages. An easy way to increase readability is to add pronunciations and eliminate unusual words (idioms and jargon) and abbreviations. Other things you should consider are site colors, background images, text size, images, and contrasts.

KEYBOARD ACCESSIBILITY

All website functionality needs to be available using a keyboard without requiring specific timing for individual keystrokes. Also, the website should not prohibit or discourage mouse input.

TIME-BASED MEDIA ALTERNATIVES

Anytime you are presenting video or audio recordings on your website, you should have an alternative in place. Possible alternatives to time-based media are captions, transcripts, and prerecorded audio descriptions.

ADAPTABILITY

Website content should be able to be presented in different ways without losing information or structure. A simple solution is to have text alternatives available to describe information that is conveyed via sensory descriptors (shape, size, visual location, orientation, or sound).

PREDICTABILITY

Your website needs to appear and operate in predictable ways. Make sure navigation and input methods are consistent throughout your site, and when there is a change, properly inform the user.

COMPATIBILITY

All the content on your web page needs to be compatible with all assistive technologies.  Standard HTML code already accomplishes this when used according to specification.

If you have any tips about what you do to ensure your website meets all of your citizens’ needs, please share below.