Website Accessibility

• Creating a website that is accessible to all can have many benefits. For people with disabilities, it’s important (and the law) that they have the same access as those without disabilities. No matter what type of disability a person has, they legally need to have access to the same kind of technology that a person without disabilities has.
• Not having an accessible site can expose your company to litigation. The number of Title III lawsuits directed at inaccessible websites is on the rise. Of the 2,258 lawsuits filed last year, 1,565 alone were filed in New York State. While meeting WCAG accessibility guidelines won’t guarantee your website is shielded from litigation or fines, the more you make your website accessible, the better.

• Making your website accessible also makes it a more user-friendly site for all visitors. This can help improve your SEO, profits, and will make your users happy when they are on the site.

• The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an international organization that develops web standards, created the World Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

• WCAG Compliance is divided into three conformance levels (A-AA-AAA) which are organized based on the impact they have on design or visual presentation of the pages. IT IS IMPORTANT TO KNOW THAT THE HIGHER THE LEVEL, THE MORE RESTRAINING IT BECOMES ON DESIGN.  It is certainly true that the more A’s the harder it is to achieve, but conversely the more people who are likely to benefit.

• (A) is viewed as the minimum level of requirement which all websites, apps and electronic content such as documents should adhere to.
• (AA) is viewed as the acceptable level of accessibility for many online services which should work with most assistive technology which is now widely available on both desktop and mobile devices, or which can be purchased as a third-party installation.
• (AAA) compliance is viewed as the gold standard level of accessibility, which provides everything for a complete accessible offering, including all the bells and whistles which make the difference between a very good experience and an excellent one.

In addition to the rigorous process of general user interface design, Marketing Tech follows a strict checklist of items that must be implemented on an accessible website. At the end of the development phase, we scan the sites with automated tools such as Google Lighthouse, Wave, or Axe Accessibility. We also perform a check using a screen-reader and a keyboard. In order to increase compliance with WCAG 2.1, ATAG 2.0, ADA & Section 508 requirements we won’t consider the website complete until it passes all of our tests. Additionally, we partner with non-profits that serve people with disabilities to double-check our work and provide an additional report on the accessibility of a specific site.