The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that businesses make both their physical space and their online space accessible to individuals with disabilities. Denial of full and equal access to website content, and real estate services, as a result, may also be a Fair Housing violation. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines provide a detailed breakdown of the steps that can be taken to make online content more accessible to people with disabilities, including auditory, cognitive, neurological, physical, speech, and visual. If you are uncertain whether your website is in compliance, check with your web developer.
ADA Website Compliance Checklist
July 7, 2020
Colors
Compliance Tips:
- Use high contrast between text and background colors.
- Don’t use color as the only prompt to convey info.
Links
Compliance Tips:
- Links should describe where the link is going.
- State type of document linked to and size (DOC/PDF).
Fillable Forms
Compliance Tips:
- Include labels immediately next to the fillable field(s)
Website Images
Compliance Tips:
- Include alternate (alt) text for images.
- Use text rather than an image of text (except logos).
- Do not rely on screen orientation.
Audio & Video
Compliance Tips:
- Include subtitles, captions, and/or written transcripts.
- Allow auto-play of sound or video to be paused.
- Do not have videos flash more than 3 times/second.
Text
Compliance Tips:
- Ensure that text can be enlarged without distortion.
- Do not use images of text (except logos).
- Each page should have a language assigned.
Navigation
Compliance Tips:
- Allow the website to be navigated using the keyboard only.
- Provide multiple ways to find information.
- Do not use site time limits.
- Individual pages should have unique titles.