Developing Your Digital Accessibility Plan for 2024.

Looking to improve your website’s accessibility in 2024? Don’t worry; our digital accessibility plan has you covered! Entering a new year often means setting new goals, and what could be better than improving the accessibility of your website in the new year?

An accessibility plan is a smart legal and strategic move that can enhance your brand, expand your market reach, and minimize legal risks. Improving web accessibility by complying with ADA and WCAG guidelines opens new opportunities for reaching a broader audience.

Keep in mind that this is not just something for disabled users. Improving web accessibility creates a more inclusive user experience for everyone. It improves UI/UX and helps neurodiverse users.

Our guide will provide you with a step-by-step process to create an effective digital accessibility plan for your business in 2024. From posting an accessibility statement to partnering with an accessibility professional, we will cover the essential strategies to make your digital platforms accessible and more inclusive for everyone!

“Accessibility is not just about abiding by rules; it’s about making the digital realm an inviting, inclusive space for all.”

-Accessiblü

Accessibility Plan (Quarter 1): Laying the Foundation

Posting an Accessibility Statement

The first step in developing your accessibility plan is to create and post an accessibility statement on your website. This statement communicates your commitment to accessibility and inclusion.

An accessibility statement provides information on how people with disabilities can access your accessible features or report any accessibility issues. Your accessibility statement should be clear, concise, and easy to find on your website.

Crafting an Effective Accessibility Statement

When creating your accessibility statement, it is important to include the following elements:

• Commitment to Accessibility: Clearly outline your commitment to accessibility and disability inclusion, emphasizing your dedication to providing equal access to all users.

• Standards and Guidelines: Specify the accessibility standards and guidelines you adhere to, such as Section 508 or the new WCAG 2.2 requirements, and explain how you are implementing them in your physical and digital spaces.

• Contact Information: Provide contact information for users to report any accessibility barriers or seek assistance. For eCommerce businesses, include how to get help placing an order. Ensure that the contact information is easily accessible and visible on your website.

• Known Limitations: Be transparent about any known limitations or challenges in achieving full accessibility. This demonstrates your commitment to continual improvement and acknowledges the complexities of accessibility implementation. An accessibility professional can help identify notable issues.

• Technical Prerequisites: Inform users about any technical prerequisites they may need to access your digital assets, such as specific browsers, assistive technologies, or plugins. Screen readers interact with a browser, so this can be a huge help!

• Testing Environments: Share information about the environments in which you have tested your digital assets to ensure accessibility, such as different devices, screen readers, or assistive technologies.

Once you have crafted your accessibility statement, display it on your website and make it easily accessible to all users.

Familiarize Yourself with WCAG Guidelines and ADA Requirements

Tackling WCAG

To conform with accessibility standards, you need to familiarize yourself with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

The WCAG provides a set of guidelines for making web content accessible to individuals with disabilities. The whole purpose of WCAG is to help assistive technology interact with the digital world.

Spoiler Alert: The WCAG is not an easy read. It’s based on principles, not HTML or CSS code. To those not familiar with assistive technology, It can be vague, confusing, and difficult to understand. So, start small.

Start by reading some articles or blogs to get a general idea of WCAG. Then, explore the four principles of WCAG in chunks. Following some accessibility professionals and companies on social media is also a good idea. We often make posts explaining parts of WCAG.

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The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

The ADA ensures equal rights and access for individuals with disabilities. The ADA has several parts, and each applies to different areas, such as your employees, physical spaces, websites, and digital assets.

Understanding these guidelines and requirements will help you implement the necessary changes to make your digital platforms accessible.

Want to learn more about accessibility laws? Check out our Accessiblü Guide to Accessibility Laws for Businesses.

Accessibility Plan (Quarter 2): Accessibility Audits and Training

Perform a Comprehensive Website Audit

Conducting an accessibility audit is a critical step in evaluating the current state of accessibility for your digital assets. This audit should thoroughly review your website’s design, content, and functionality.

A good manual audit will do more than just identify accessibility barriers. When done by a professional, they will help you understand how disabled users experience your website.

An accessibility audit can do wonders for improving the UI/UX of your website!

The Benefits of an Accessibility Audit

An accessibility audit offers numerous benefits for your business, including:

• Identifying Accessibility Barriers: An audit helps uncover potential accessibility barriers that may impede users with disabilities from accessing and navigating your digital assets.
• Prioritizing Remediation Efforts: An audit can provide a roadmap for addressing accessibility issues, allowing you to prioritize remediation efforts based on impact and urgency.
• Ensuring Compliance: By conducting an accessibility audit, you can ensure compliance with ADA and WCAG guidelines, reducing the risk of legal consequences and enhancing your reputation as an inclusive business.
• Enhancing User Experience: Improving accessibility leads to an enhanced user experience for all users, fostering positive engagement and customer satisfaction.

Automated Tools

You may want to try using automated accessibility tools like browser extensions. While these are a great way to get your feet wet with your accessibility research, just keep in mind these three things:

• Automated tools are NOT the same as an overlay widget. Tools = good. Overlays = bad.
• Automated testing only identifies about 25% of all WCAG issues.
• Automated tools can give false positive and negative results.

Auditing your own website is like diagnosing your own illness. So be careful!

That’s why there are accessibility professionals. We make sure you get a comprehensive check across different environments against different criteria.

Training Employees on Accessibility

Educating yourself and your employees on accessibility is crucial for creating an inclusive work culture and ensuring accessibility is integrated into your business’s processes. Accessibility training can be as easy as reading an article or as involved as having professionals work with your team.

The Importance of Accessibility Training

Providing training to employees, especially those involved in content creation and web development, is crucial for embedding accessibility into your company’s culture. Accessibility training equips employees with the knowledge and skills to create accessible digital content, ensuring that accessibility is considered at every stage of the development process.

Key Training Areas

When designing your accessibility training program, consider covering the following key areas:

• Understanding Accessibility Guidelines: Educate employees about WCAG guidelines and ADA requirements to ensure a solid foundation of accessibility knowledge. If you work with the government, you’ll want to look into Section 508 requirements.
• Accessible Content Creation: Train employees on creating accessible content, including techniques for writing alt text, structuring headings, and designing accessible forms.
• Testing and Evaluation: Teach employees how to conduct basic accessibility tests and evaluations to identify common accessibility issues and ensure compliance.
• Assistive Technology Familiarization: Provide an overview of common assistive technologies, such as screen readers and magnifiers, to help employees understand how users with disabilities interact with digital content.
• Inclusive Design Principles: Introduce employees to inclusive design principles and the importance of considering diverse user needs during development.

By investing in accessibility training, you empower your employees to create inclusive digital experiences and contribute to a more accessible online environment.

Accessibility Plan (Quarter 3): Implement Accessibility Strategies

Tweaking Your Development Process

Integrating accessibility into your web development process is key to ensuring your digital platforms are accessible from the ground up.

Consider implementing accessibility best practices at each stage of the development process, including design, coding, and quality assurance. This proactive approach will save time and resources by preventing accessibility issues in the later stages of development.

Integrating Accessibility from the Start

To ensure accessibility is ingrained in your development process, consider the following strategies:

• Collaborating with Accessibility Professionals: Involve accessibility professionals in the early stages of your development process to provide guidance and support in implementing accessibility best practices.
• Including Persons with Disabilities: Incorporate the perspectives of individuals with disabilities in your development team or consult them during the user testing phase. Their insights can uncover accessibility barriers and inform design decisions.
• Implementing Accessibility Checkpoints: Introduce specific checkpoints in your development process to ensure accessibility is considered at each stage, from wireframing and prototyping to coding and testing.
• Conducting Regular Accessibility Reviews: Schedule regular reviews of your development process to evaluate its effectiveness in addressing accessibility requirements. This allows for continuous improvement and refinement of your accessibility practices.

By tweaking your development process to prioritize accessibility, you create a culture of inclusivity and ensure that accessibility is seamlessly integrated into your digital products and services.

Partnering with an Accessibility Professional

Working with an accessibility professional can provide invaluable expertise and guidance throughout the implementation of your accessibility plan. If you don’t have anyone on your staff with this expertise, you can always work with someone CPACC certified or a Section 508 DOHS Trusted Tester.

These professionals can offer insights into best practices, conduct audits, and provide ongoing support to ensure your digital platforms remain accessible. Partnering with an accessibility professional demonstrates your commitment to inclusivity and strengthens your accessibility initiatives.

Making Changes to Your Website

Easy Accessibility Changes for Your Website

There are simple, easy changes you can do to improve web accessibility.

• Make sure images and graphics have alternative text. Check out our blog on Alt+Text to learn how to write effective descriptions.
• Provide captions for videos. Check for spelling, context, and grammar issues. This matters!
• Fix links like “Learn More” or “Read More” to describe what users are reading more about.
• Make sure your form fields have placeholder text and clear instructions and indicate required fields.

Quick Wins for Website Accessibility

Implementing accessibility improvements on your website can be done in small, manageable steps. Here are some quick wins that can significantly enhance the accessibility of your website:

• Add Alt Text to Images: Ensure all images on your website have descriptive alt text that conveys their purpose and context. Alt text is crucial for users who rely on screen readers or have images disabled.
• Use Proper Heading Levels: Structure your website content with proper heading levels (e.g., h1, h2, h3) to provide clear navigation and improve the reading experience for users with disabilities.
• Improve Link Descriptions: Instead of using generic phrases like “click here,” make your hyperlink descriptions more descriptive and informative. This helps users understand the destination of the link, especially when relying on assistive technologies.
• Provide Sufficient Color Contrast: Ensure that the color contrast between text and background meets WCAG guidelines. Sufficient color contrast improves readability for users with visual impairments.
• Test Keyboard Accessibility: Test your website’s keyboard accessibility to ensure that all interactive elements can be easily accessed and operated without relying on a mouse or touch input.

By implementing these quick wins, you can make significant strides in improving the accessibility of your website and providing a more inclusive user experience.

Need help checking your website? Download our free Accessibility Checklist

Accessibility Plan (Quarter 4): Monitoring and Continuous Improvement

Monitoring and Testing Your Website

Every accessibility plan should include regular monitoring and testing. Checking your website for accessibility issues is essential to maintain compliance and ensure a positive user experience for individuals with disabilities.

Accessibility is not a one-and-done solution.

Websites constantly change. Web browsers get updated. Even assistive technology gets updated frequently. All your efforts can be for naught if you stop checking for accessibility. Don’t forget accessibility is also factored in SEO rankings; that’s one more reason not to let it slide!

Conduct regular accessibility tests, seek user feedback, and promptly address any reported issues. Continuously improving the accessibility of your website will demonstrate your commitment to inclusivity and create a better experience for all users.

Automated and Manual Testing

To effectively monitor your website’s accessibility, consider a combination of automated and manual testing:

• · Automated Testing: Utilize accessibility testing tools to scan your website for common accessibility issues. These tools can help identify potential barriers and provide insights into areas that require further attention.
• · Manual Testing: Conduct manual accessibility testing to validate the findings from automated tools and identify nuanced accessibility issues that may require human judgment. Manual testing involves using assistive technologies, such as screen readers, and testing with different input methods.
• · User Testing: Engage users with disabilities to provide feedback on your website’s accessibility. User testing helps uncover usability issues and provides valuable insights into the user experience of individuals with disabilities.

By combining automated testing, manual testing, and user testing, you can ensure a comprehensive and ongoing monitoring process for your website’s accessibility.

A Note About Accessibility Overlays

You may be tempted to explore an accessibility overlay as an easy win when it comes to your website’s accessibility. Don’t be fooled by their slick marketing and false promises!

Accessibility Overlays Fail for Many Reasons!

Explaining why overlays fail would take an entire article on its own. That’s why we’ve written several (see our link below)! The highlights of why overlay widgets don’t work are this:

• Overlays don’t fix any code. Their solution of having a few lines of code try and fix an entire website is laughable. This alone should be a red flag for any seasoned web developer. If it sounds too good to be true…
• Overlays duplicate existing tools. At best, overlays are redundant features already on a user’s computer or device. Think about this: if someone needed a screen reader, how did they get to your website in the first place?
• Overlays fail to comply with the ADA. Overlays have already been ruled as not conforming to the ADA in U.S. courts of law. Having one on your website makes you a target for a potential lawsuit.
• Overlays are poorly placed. Both in the technology stack and within the page. If a user must navigate the entire site to activate your overlay, your website is NOT accessible.

Be sure to read the fine print when it comes to overlays. They make big promises but fail to deliver on any of them. Many clients have come to us because of lawsuits caused by having an overlay on their website.

Want the dirt on why overlays fail? Check out our full article on The Dangers of Accessibility Overlays.

Conclusion

Developing an accessibility plan for your business in 2024 is crucial for creating an inclusive digital environment and meeting ADA and WCAG guidelines. To make your website more accessible to all users, there are several strategies that you can implement.

These include posting an accessibility statement, conducting an accessibility audit, providing training to employees, tweaking the development process, making changes to your website, and monitoring accessibility. By doing so, you can promote inclusivity and enhance the user experience for everyone.

Accessibility is an ongoing commitment that requires continuous improvement and adaptation. By partnering with an accessibility professional, staying updated on WCAG guidelines, and fostering a culture of accessibility within your organization, you can create a sustainable and inclusive digital presence.

Are you ready to develop your accessibility strategy for 2024? Contact Accessiblü today for a free consultation, and let us help you plan your new year’s strategy for accessibility. Together, we can create a more accessible and inclusive digital world.

Ready to take the next step in developing your accessibility plan? Contact Accessiblü for a free consultation, and let us help you plan your new year’s strategy for accessibility success.