Most business owners are familiar with the American with Disabilities Act (or the ADA as it’s commonly referred to as). The ADA was put into law in 1990 to help put an end to discrimination based on differing abilities of individuals by mandating that businesses and organizations have to provide "reasonable accommodation" and equal access to people who meet ADA standards for disabilities. While the law isn’t clear on how this applies to websites (when initially written, the ADA did not cover websites as they did did not exist, so they are not mentioned in the law), lower court justices have agreed that it does; however, there is a lot of hazy area on the issue.
So, is ADA Compliance mandatory for your website? No. There is no current standard for ADA Compliance of a website, and it’s not completely clear if ADA rules would apply to any specific site. However, xclntDesign believes in staying one step ahead of things like this that could pose a potential headache down the line.
xclntDesign recommends adhering to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) when constructing and maintaining a website. As technologies change, The WCAG Standard is updated regularly, allowing us to create and maintain the most accessible sites possible. Following these standards helps ensure your website is easy to read and navigate for all users.
xclntDesign regularly puts our managed websites through a series of accessibility tests that let us know if any issues with WCAG Standards exist on a website. We are alerted to any problems and can begin rectifying them and bring the website in compliance if required. So while the question of websites and their compliance with ADA rules and regulations are currently unclear, rest assured that xclntDesign is always staying on top of the latest trends and best practices to make sure your business website runs problem-free and is accessible to the most people as possible. Creating and maintaining websites that adhere to these simple rules allows us to feel confident that users of your site will not experience issues related to accessibility and usability.
