What does it mean for a website to be ADA Compliant? In simple terms, it just means that it is designed for everybody to use. So, people with any type of disability should be able to easily use your website. What’s great about this is that it’s a win-win for everyone. It is easier for people with disabilities to find the information that they need on your site, and a more accessible website will assist in generating more traffic to your website.
We have more about the benefits of having an ADA compliant website plus how Twenty Over Ten ensures ADA compliance no matter what framework you choose to build your site on.
How Are Twenty Over Ten Websites ADA Compliant?
At Twenty Over Ten, we have ADA compliance and accessibility features built into all of our frameworks. With our responsive design options, resizable text, flexible color and layout options, there are many ways that advisors can create a website that fits the unique needs of their site visitors.
6 Ways to Make Sure Your Site is Compliant Through Twenty Over Ten
Conduct the six checkpoints below to make your site is ADA compliant.
1. Make Sure You Have Upgraded To The Latest Framework Version
We are constantly updating our platform and frameworks to ensure that we are providing our users with the best tools possible by staying one step ahead. Because of this, we recommend that you periodically check to be sure that yours is up to date. We’ve made this incredibly simple to do in your global site settings under the “Advanced” drop-down you can quickly and easily change your framework and it will be noted here if there is an upgrade available. Learn more about changing or upgrading your website framework.
2. add Descriptive Alt Text to your images
We offer the ability to manipulate alt text within our platform so that advisors can describe what an image is about. Additionally, alt text is used by screen readers to describe your content to someone who may be visually impaired. Adding alt text also helps Google and other search engines better understand what an image is displaying as well. So adding alt text not only can help make your website ADA compliant but it can also help boost your site in organic search – score! Learn more about how to add alt text to your website images.
3. Use Descriptive Text For Titles, Headings and Links
If someone was listening to a title on any page of your website, try to think what it would sound like. All of our frameworks give you creative freedom when editing or building your website, but you want to remember that the structure of your pages and the page titles you use are representative of what is on the page.
4. Use High Contrast Colors
Our flexible design allows you to change your colors in the settings. When it comes to the regular body text, it should stand out from the background in order to make your text easier to read. Once logged in, access the styles section to change specific colors to individual elements on your website like your header space, base color, links, typography, and more. Learn more about how to adjust the colors on your website.
Twenty Over Ten client, Plectrum Advisers‘ homepage has a very “busy” hero image, as it’s a picture of musicians warming up, however, the hero font is in stark contrast to the background. The hero font stands out in white against the darker background making it very easy to read even though a lot is going on in the image.
5. Use Closed Captioning On Your Videos
If you are using video on your website, make sure that you are including closed captions wherever they are available, and choose videos and video services that allow for this. This not only helps people that are hearing impaired but it’s a good idea to remember in general. In fact, a survey of U.S. consumers found that 92% view videos with the sound off on mobile and 83% watch with sound off. So adding captions will not only make your videos more accessible but there’s a chance they can increase the watch time of your videos generating more traffic to them.
6. Run your site through wave
Lastly, there are tools that you can use to check if your website meets compliance standards. We recommend popping your website address into WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool. Once you add your domain the tool will identify if there are any accessibility and/or Web Content Accessibility Guideline (WCAG) errors on your site.
3 Additional Ways You Can Ensure Your Advisor Website Is ADA Compliant
There are a few other things that you can do in order to make sure that your site is ADA compliant.
Identify your Site’s Language in the Header Code
You can make it clear what language the site should be read in which helps readers to utilize the text readers, and they then can identify those codes and function accordingly, making for a much easier and more navigable experience.
Offer Alternatives and Suggestions When There are Issues With Input
If a user with a disability is seeing input errors because they are navigating the website differently then your site should automatically offer recommendations to show visitors how they can navigate the site in order to best suit their needs.
Utilize web writing best practices
We touched on this briefly above, but make sure that you keep your website content simple and conversational so that users can easily scan your content. Use headlines and sub-headers, so that you can also help break out the content into easily digestible sections. We tell our clients to do this when it comes to writing blog posts, etc, as it makes the material much easier to read and less daunting, but it rings especially true for people with disabilities. Additionally, if you utilize abbreviations and acronyms, then make sure you are including periods between the letters in order to help readers to pronounce them correctly.
Need assistance writing copy for your website?
Work with our team of copywriters to breathe some character into your site.
5 Benefits of Having an ADA Compliant Website
When it comes to creating an ADA compliant website, there are many benefits to ensuring yours adheres to the guidelines aside from just remaining compliant.
It Helps You to Avoid Discrimination and Legal Complications
If your website isn’t accessible to people with disabilities, then your business or organization may be subject to legal requirements in regard to web accessibility. So make sure that you are doing the right thing and lowering your risk of legal action.
Build Positive Public Relations
In an industry that is growing as rapidly as financial services, it’s crucial that you stand out from your competitors. If you offer accessibility to everyone, including those with disabilities, then it will be a strong reputation boost, which will help you when it comes to growing your client base.
It Provides Better Usability for All Visitors
Not only are you providing easier accessibility and usability on the desktop, but this will boost your mobile-usability too, which is rapidly increasing, as over 50% of web traffic comes from phones as of March of 2020.
It Gives your SEO A BOOST
Since search engines can’t read images, if you include alt text to your image to make them easier for people with disabilities, then it always helps for search engines to better crawl your website, therefore boosting your SEO.
It Increases Website Traffic and Marketing Efforts
We touched on this above, but a more accessible website not only improves the experience for visitors but increases your website’s visibility, which will drive traffic and ultimately your firm’s sales. Did you know that people with disabilities make up 22% of the American public? If your website is not compliant with this, then that’s a large group of people that you are not serving, in addition to a large chunk of revenue.
Final Thoughts
As we rapidly change, so do the standards that we follow. In the financial industry, there is so much red tape, so making sure that you are compliant by all standards, and that includes people with disabilities is key to a thriving advisor site. At Twenty Over Ten, we try to make this as seamless as possible with our customizable frameworks, and we hope that this will help your firm to meet all standards when it comes to serving all of your visitors.
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About the author
Blair Kelly
Blair is a digital marketing assistant at Twenty Over Ten and has a passion for uncovering what drives online traffic and the highest engagement. She follows more animals on Instagram than humans and her greatest achievement is her daughter, Grey.
