So what types of changes need to be made to your website in order to comply with the ADA regulations? Where do you start? How can you ensure your company is safe from the legal professionals coming after those who aren’t keeping up to speed with the new website regulations?

There are several main aspects to your site that will keep your site operating legally in accordance with the ADA.

If visitors to your website are visually-impaired and your font is unreadable, they won’t know where to go or how to access your site’s features. In the Domino’s Pizza lawsuit, the individual filing the grievance was unable to place their order due to their inability to see. This isn’t just limited to font sizing—some font types are unreadable to the visually-impaired as well. Having the ability to zoom in and out of a site, as well as choosing an ADA-compliant font, is vital.

Those who are colorblind may be unable to see certain images on your screen. For this reason, one of the new website guidelines, WCAG 2.0, is that companies have 3 different contrast display options on their site. This allows these visitors the ability to change background color and text so that it can be easily read.

Many of us use a mouse to navigate through our computer’s monitor, or we use the touchpad on our laptop. For many users with motor disabilities, this isn’t an option. These visitors to your site will use keyboard navigation and if your site isn’t compatible, you could end up with a pretty hefty fine.

As content writers, we like to add some photos into our pages to help support the text. But where we use other images without supporting text around it is where ADA compliance becomes fuzzy. For these website images with no supporting text, a text alternative must be provided to explain the image.

Flashy pop-ups, images, or videos on your website could cause seizures in those susceptible to having them. Software that eliminates news tickers, pop-up windows, or automated image scrolling can make your website ADA compliant.

A text reader is something everyone is beginning to use so they can listen to text hands-free. We see this is audiobooks and in documents created in a word processor. Having the ability to have your website’s text read back to a visitor is a key component to ensuring your website’s compliance.

The screen reader is designed for the interaction of a website for a blind user. This reader converts digital text to synthesized speech when prompted. This dictates all the information necessary for a blind person to successfully navigate throughout your website. This turns previously inaccessible items on your site into accessible ones.

There are many features that make your website ADA compliant. Having a menu of these features is important to allowing those with disabilities the capability to see everything they can do on your site.