When most website owners ask about ADA compliance, they’re really asking what do I do so I don’t get sued over website accessibility? In this 10 step ADA website compliance checklist, we’ll work our way through practical accessibility (preventing a lawsuit) all the way up to best practices for ADA compliance.
This 10 step checklist applies to your entire website, but for the purposes of this guide, prioritize your five most important pages first.
Note: Our ADA Compliance Course tells you exactly how to find and fix the 15 most commonly claimed issues in website accessibility lawsuits, step-by-step. You can watch a video preview of the course at ADACompliance.net.
Table of Contents
ADA Website Compliance Checklist
- Alt text
- Form field labels
- Keyboard navigability
- 0 WAVE Scan Errors
- Accessibility Statement
- 12 Accessibility Issues
- WCAG 2.1 AA Conformance
- Audit
- Remediation
- User Testing
Let’s now explain each item in our list.
Step 1: Fix Alt Text
Alt text is the single most commonly claimed accessibility issue in website accessibility lawsuits so fix this first. There are multiple crucial details when fixing alt that you must be aware of so be sure to read our free WCAG 2.1 AA guide.
Step 2: Fix Missing Form Field Labels
Missing programmatic form field labels are the second most commonly claimed accessibility issue (when you factor out boilerplate claims). Most form fields have a visual label or placeholder, but you must have a correctly associated programmatic label.
Step 3: Ensure Full Keyboard Navigability
You must be able to completely navigate and use your website using only a keyboard (no mouse). If you cannot, you must fix your website so it’s keyboard navigable. This is another critical accessibility issue that plaintiffs’ lawyers frequently claim in lawsuits.
Step 4: Get to 0 WAVE Scan Errors
The WAVE accessibility scan by WebAIM is the most popular automated scan. It’s used by everyone – including plaintiffs’ lawyers. It’s always best if you have zero errors returned by WAVE.
Step 5: Publish an Accessibility Statement
You can publish an accessibility statement at any point, but it’s logical to write about your commitment to accessibility after you’ve taken steps to improve accessibility. You can always update your statement after you’ve taken more action.
Step 6: Fix Other Frequently Claimed Issues
We’ve already covered the top 3 claimed accessibility issues, but there are several more (12) issues that plaintiffs’ lawyers repeatedly claim when suing website owners.
We’ve read through hundreds of complaints filed in state and local court by 25 of the most active plaintiffs’ law firms in this case. The accessibility issues claimed are all prioritized, in order, inside the ADA Compliance Course with step-by-step instructions on how to fix them.
Step 7: Work Towards WCAG 2.1 AA Conformance
Just by fixing the top 15 issues claimed in lawsuits, you’ve very significantly reduced your risk of being sued. Once you’ve completed the ADA Compliance Course, it’s always best practice to make your website WCAG 2.1 AA conformant.
The great news is by implementing the course lessons, you’ll have already taken care of a huge chunk of WCAG, and, in particular, all of the most technically advanced WCAG success criteria or requirements.
Our WCAG Course complements the ADA Compliance Course very nicely here.
Step 8: Audit Your Website
Thus far, you’ve made many changes to your website, but have all the fixes been made correctly? Have you worked through all of the important pages of your website? In step 8, we hire a technical accessibility expert to audit our website to find any outstanding accessibility issues (that have either been missed or still remain despite fixes).
We highly recommend a third-party service provider with expertise and experience in audits (Accessible.org), but you can learn how auditing for accessibility works in our how to conduct a website accessibility audit guide.
Step 9: Remediate Your Website
Now that you have a report that details all accessibility issues within a set scope of your website, it’s time to remediate or fix those issues.
Optimally, a service provider with technical expertise in accessibility will remediate your website. However, you may prefer to make fixes in-house or through a trusted third-party development agency.
Either way, it’s best to take immediate action and resolve the issues found in the audit.
Step 10: User Testing
The final step that really seals the deal is user testing. User testing is testing that is conducted by an accessibility professional with one or more disabilities. Typically, with websites, user testing is conducted by someone who is blind or visually impaired and using screen reader assistive technology.
User testing is related to an audit in that we are trying to find accessibility issues, but it’s more practical and less technical than an audit. An audit is grading your website against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), while user testing is relating issues that the tester comes across during the session.
Summary
In the 10 step checklist above, we progressed from immediately taking action to significantly our risk of being sued all the way to user testing our website to cement our excellent accessibility status.
This progression especially works well because it’s front loaded in taking action and not immediately buying services that cost thousands of dollars. This means you’ll lower your risk of a lawsuit while you improve the accessibility of your website.
As we level up to steps 8-9-10, this is where optionally we hire service providers. What especially helps is by going through steps 1-7, you’ll have a much, much better feel for accessibility and what you need which means you won’t waste money on “solutions” that don’t advance your end objective: WCAG 2.1 AA conformance.
Considerations
Here are a few additional considerations to keep in mind as you work through the checklist:
- You can always skip directly to an audit if you’d prefer someone to take care of everything for you.
- Being proactive and taking immediate action is key. Remember an audit only finds issues, you need to fix them.
- Attention to detail is critical when it comes to preventing lawsuits. If you miss a key detail, it can easily lead to a lawsuit – even if you’ve already been sued once.
- Beyond just the services, at Accessible.org, you can get the certification documentation once you reach full WCAG 2.1 AA conformance. Visit our documents page to see our certification.