What is ADA Accessibility Compliance?
In September 2010 the Department of Justice published the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Standards for Accessible Design. They state that all electronic and information technology must be accessible to people with disabilities.
While there is no official DOJ regulation when it comes to websites, its official position is that content on the internet of a commercial or public nature (the internet being categorized as a “place of public accommodation”) is subject to ADA compliance, and therefore discrimination will not be tolerated (as was demonstrated by National Association of the Deaf, et al. v. Netflix in 2013).
If you are a private employer with 15 or more employees, a business operating for the benefit of the public, or a state or local government agency, all content you create must be ADA compliant.
How can I make my content ADA compliant?
Since official regulations are still under development, the ADA encourages self-regulation of accessibility standards, and organizations are encouraged to use the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0), AA level, until the DOJ defines the official regulations.
The W3 consortium has a great tool to help with WCAG 2.0 compliance, which can be found here. For detailed information and the latest news about the ADA, we encourage you to visit the official website at ada.gov.
How can ResponsiveVoice help?
ResponsiveVoice enables you to give an alternative to text for the visually-impaired. It opens a new channel of communication through audio, which can be easily customized in both content and language to reach the widest possible audience, and therefore make your website or app accessible to the huge number of users for which these regulations were put into place. This is not only limited to content, as you can also have your call to action be expressed in welcome messages, or end-of-page messages, and lots of other functions.
We created ResponsiveVoice to help websites and apps transition into this new era of accessibility, which is a principle that is here to stay. Now is the time to make your projects and products accessible!
