By carollcOn

Do you want to know more about what means a website being ADA Compliant? Well, me too. I found some good articles, evaluation tools, checklists and tons of information about the ADA and accessibility in general.

First, what is ADA?

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law on July 26, 1990, by President George H.W. Bush. The ADA is one of America’s most comprehensive pieces of civil rights legislation that prohibits discrimination and guarantees that people with disabilities have the same opportunities as everyone else to participate in the mainstream of American life — to enjoy employment opportunities, to purchase goods and services, and to participate in State and local government programs and services. Modeled after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin – and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 — the ADA is an “equal opportunity” law for people with disabilities.

Source: The ADA website

W3C – Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

As always, W3C website is a amazing source of information, a must read is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 but give a look at the Accessibility Checklist too, lots of details about accessibility from the designer|developer|tester standpoint.

Web Accessibility evaluation tools

You can find a lot of tools to test and get reports about your website, even for free. I tested this one, WAVE, and it’s super simple, but easy to get the information you need.

I liked this one because it shows what is right too! You can see what I already had done marked as Features and with the green background in the image below.

Results i got running one page of my blog through the Wave Accessibility evaluation tool

What tool should I choose?

The W3C has a great article about how to choose the right evaluation tool for your business/project. It also has a comprehensive list of Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools , but go grab a cup of coffee first, it’s a long list.

References

Be aware

ADA is a civil rights legislation that prohibits discrimination and guarantees that people with disabilities have the same opportunities as everyone else to participate in the mainstream of American life.

Even if you, your company or your clients are not in the United States, most countries already have their own accessibility legislation. You should apply the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines anyway, just because you’re cool AF.

What now?

Well, to start, I’ll make my own blog ADA compliant. I’ll post more details soon.