How To Make Website ADA Compliant in 9 Simple Steps

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a civil rights law enacted in 1990 to prohibit discrimination against individuals with disabilities. While it was initially focused on physical spaces, it has expanded its scope to include websites and online services.

ADA compliance for websites ensures that people with disabilities can access and use online content as effectively as those without disabilities. This includes individuals with visual, auditory, motor, or cognitive impairments who may use assistive technologies to navigate the web.

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There are several reasons you need to make your website ADA-compliant:

• Inclusivity: By making your website accessible, you're ensuring that all potential customers or users can engage with your content, regardless of their abilities.
• Legal requirements: While the ADA doesn't explicitly mention websites, courts have increasingly interpreted the law to apply to online spaces. Failing to comply could leave your business vulnerable to lawsuits.
• Improved user experience: Many accessibility features benefit all users, not just those with disabilities. Clear navigation and well-structured content help everyone use your site more efficiently.
• SEO benefits: Many ADA compliance measures, such as providing alt text for images and using proper heading structures, also align with SEO best practices. It’s a clear win-win!

Understanding these basics of ADA compliance is the first step in creating an accessible website. Bearing this in mind, let’s explore our nine-step process for how to make a website ADA-compliant.

1. Conduct an Accessibility Audit

The first step in making your website ADA-compliant is conducting a thorough accessibility audit. This process helps you identify areas that need improvement and prioritize your efforts.

Start by using automated tools like WAVE or aXe for an initial scan. These tools can quickly flag common accessibility issues, giving you a good starting point. But don’t rely solely on these tools. Manual testing is crucial for catching issues that automated tools might miss.

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Perform manual tests using keyboard navigation and screen readers. This hands-on approach helps you experience your site as users with disabilities might. Pay close attention to:

• Interactive elements: Can they be used without a mouse?
• Content accessibility: Is all content accessible and understandable via screen readers?
• Focus order: Is there a logical focus order for keyboard navigation?
• Visual indicators: Are there clear visual focus indicators for keyboard users?

After your audit, create a prioritized list of issues to address. Consider the severity and impact of each issue when prioritizing. If you're new to accessibility or dealing with a complex website, it might be worth hiring an accessibility expert for a more thorough evaluation.

2. Implement Proper Heading Structure 

A well-structured website is crucial for both SEO and accessibility. Proper heading structure helps users understand the organization of your content and navigate your site more easily.

Use H1, H2, and H3 tags hierarchically to create a logical content structure. Here are some key points to remember:

• Use only one H1 tag per page, typically for the main title.
• Use H2s for main sections and H3s for subsections.
• Avoid skipping heading levels (e.g., don't jump from H2 to H4).

Beyond headings, employ semantic HTML elements to give more meaning to your content structure. Use <nav> for navigation menus, wrap your main content in <main>, use <article> for self-contained content pieces, and place site-wide information in <footer>.

Ensure a logical reading order in your HTML structure. This helps screen reader users navigate your content more intuitively. Use ARIA landmarks like role="banner", role="navigation", and role="main" to define different areas of the page, making sure each landmark is unique.

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3. Optimize Images

Images are crucial in web design, but they can cause issues for visually impaired users. If you want to make your site ADA-compliant, you need to make your images more accessible. Here’s how: 

• Add descriptive alt text to all non-decorative images. Keep it concise (typically under 125 characters) but informative. Describe the image's content and function, not its appearance. For purely decorative images, use empty alt text (alt="") to indicate that screen readers can safely ignore the image.
• Provide captions and transcripts for audio and video content. Ensure that multimedia doesn't auto-play without user control, as sudden audio can be disruptive, especially for screen reader users.

You can also use this as a opportunity to ensure all your images are responsive and scale well on different devices. Responsive images are important for ADA compliance and also provide a positive user experience across screen sizes — another win-win! 

4. Maximize Text Readability

Readable text is essential for all users, but it's particularly crucial for those with visual impairments. Here are some key strategies to maximize text readability:

• Maintain proper contrast: Aim for a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text. 
• Don't rely on color alone: While color can enhance your design, avoid using it as the only means to convey information. 
• Enable text resizing: Ensure your text can be resized up to 200% without losing content or functionality. 

Choose legible fonts and use appropriate line spacing. Sans-serif fonts are often easier to read on screens. Maintain line height of around 1.5 times the font size to prevent text from feeling cramped.

5. Make Your Site Keyboard-Navigable 

Many users rely on keyboards to navigate websites, including those with motor disabilities and power users. Here's how to ensure your site is fully keyboard-accessible:

• Ensure all functionality can be accessed without a mouse. This includes navigation menus, forms, modal dialogs, and any interactive elements.
• Implement a logical tab order through interactive elements. The natural HTML flow often provides a good tab order, but you might need to adjust it for more complex layouts.
• Provide visible focus indicators for keyboard navigation to help users understand where they are on the page as they tab through elements.

Pro Tip: Use tabindex="0" to include elements in the natural tab order if needed, but avoid using positive tabindex values unless absolutely necessary, as they can disrupt the natural flow.

Remember, a keyboard-navigable site often results in a more robust and flexible user interface for all users, so this is another area where investing time and resources in ADA compliance can help your UX across all site visitors. 

6. Make Buttons and Links Accessible 

Buttons and links are the primary interactive elements on most websites. Making them accessible is crucial for a good user experience. Here are some key considerations when it comes to buttons, links, and ADA compliance:

Use clear, context-specific anchor text for links and CTAs. Avoid vague phrases like "click here" or "read more". Instead, make the link text descriptive of its destination or function. Ensure that link text makes sense even when read out of context.

For buttons, use descriptive text or proper ARIA labels. Opt for clear, action-oriented text (e.g., "Submit form" instead of "OK"). If you have buttons with only icon content, implement aria-label to provide a text alternative.

Also, make clickable areas large enough for easy interaction, especially on mobile devices. Aim for touch targets of at least 44x44 pixels. Lastly, differentiate links from surrounding text beyond just color. This helps users with color blindness or low vision identify clickable elements more easily.

7. Implement Accessible Forms

Forms are critical interaction points. If you want to avoid driving away a significant percentage of your potential targetable market, you need to make your forms and contact pages accessible. Here's how to create forms that everyone can use:

• Clear labels: Clearly label all form fields with descriptive text. Use the <label> element to associate labels with form controls programmatically. 
• Consistent positioning: Position labels consistently, typically above or to the left of fields. This predictable layout helps users navigate your forms more easily.
• Group form elements: Group related form elements using <fieldset> and <legend>. For example, you might group all shipping address fields together. 
• Clear error messages: Provide clear error messages and success confirmations. When a user makes a mistake, clearly indicate what the error is and how to fix it. Similarly, confirm when a form has been successfully submitted.

You should also avoid arbitrary time limits on form submission. Some users may need more time to complete forms, so avoid session timeouts. If a timeout is necessary, be sure to provide ample warning and give users the ability to extend the session as needed.

8. Test with Assistive Technologies

Once you have the basics settled, you need to test your site to ensure it pairs well with assistive technologies. Conducting this testing helps you experience your site as users with disabilities do, giving you the chance to find gaps in your accessibility. 

Here are some tips for the testing process: 

• Use multiple screen readers for testing. Popular options include NVDA, JAWS, and VoiceOver. Each screen reader may interpret your content slightly differently, so it's important to test with more than one.
• Don't forget about other assistive technologies. Test with voice recognition software and other assistive devices to ensure your site is usable across a range of technologies.
• Whenever possible, conduct user testing with individuals who have disabilities. Their firsthand experience and feedback can help identify issues other users might miss. 

Remember that accessibility is an ongoing process. Regularly retest your site after making changes to ensure continued compliance. This step is especially important after major updates or redesigns.

9. Document and Maintain Accessibility Efforts

Finally, remember that accessibility isn't a one-time task — it's an ongoing commitment. Here's how to document and maintain your accessibility efforts:

1. Create a clear, public-facing accessibility statement. This statement should express your commitment to accessibility, specify the standards you follow, and provide the date of the last update to your statement.
2. Invest in training for your team. Ensure that content creators and developers understand accessibility best practices. 
3. Implement accessibility checkpoints in your development workflow. By making accessibility a regular part of your process, you're more likely to catch and fix issues before they make it to your live site.

How To Make Your Website ADA Compliant: Maximizing Website Results 

Following these nine steps, you will be well on your way to making your website ADA compliant. But let's be honest, you want your website to do more than just comply with regulations. You want it to be a powerhouse that drives results for your business. You want visitors to engage with your content, connect with your brand, and ultimately convert into customers or clients.

So, how do you take your newly accessible website and turn it into a conversion machine? It's all about learning from the best. We've studied high-performing websites across various industries and reverse-engineered their strategies. The result? A comprehensive guide that can help you elevate your website from "just compliant" to "absolutely compelling."

Check out our free resource, "The Four Pillars of Winning Websites." This training distills the essence of high-conversion websites into four key principles that you can apply to your own site.

Whether you're looking to boost engagement, increase lead generation, or drive more sales, this resource will give you actionable insights to make your website work harder for your business.