One of our recent projects was the redesign & build of a website for Willamalane Park and Recreation District. One of their key concerns was ADA accessibility for the website. Being an organization that is publicly funded, it was vital that Willamalane’s new website be inclusive of people with disabilities. A task that was no small undertaking.
In our research of “ADA Accessibility”, we learned about “ADA Section 508 Compliance”; a portion of Federal law dedicated to outlining regulations for electronic data & ADA accessibility. Navigating ADA Section 508 compliance is a confusing and frustrating subject. We couldn’t find a singular source that clearly outlined what “Section 508 Compliance” was, in terms of web design.
ADA Section 508 Compliance is Poorly Documented
Seriously. It’s bad. Like…. really really poorly documented. Buried deep under 17 levels in a Federal government website that probably hasn’t been updated since 2001, we found some documentation. Buried deep under 9 levels in a completely different Federal government website that, again, probably hasn’t been updated since Britney Spears blessed cursed us with her pop hit “Oops… I did it again”, we found some additional documentation. This went on and on and on. Our lead developer, bless him, scoured about a dozen websites before he was able to cobble together bits of information to put together a list of what he believes is a definitive checklist of ADA Section 508 Compliance.
Practical Application of Section 508 Compliance for Modern Website Design & Development
What we learned is that ADA Section 508 Compliance is about proper tagging of media files, proper color saturation, and a few other things. It took 15 government websites to explain something that is only about 1 page long in documentation.
So… what did we do about ADA Section 508 Compliance?
We Built The Only Compliance-Checking Tool for WordPress
A plugin for WordPress, our Section 508 Compliance-checking tool is the only one of its kind in existence. Managed completely internally and easy-to use, The tool is designed for even the most-novice of web admins to be able to quickly and safely confirm compliance.
How it Works
1) The tool provides a short checklist to help you understand compliance with helpful links to actual government documentation.
2) Clicking “Show All Requirements” expands and shows a complete compliance checklist
3) The tool automatically checks compliance across your entire website with a single click. By clicking “Evaluate Media Accessibility”, the tool quickly (5 seconds or so) indexes your website and returns 4 ratings:
- Great
- Good
- Fair
- Failing
“Great” and “Good” ratings will pass ADA compliance, while “Fair” and “Failing” need to be improved. The tool provides direct links to media files that need to be fixed:
ADA Compliance Simplified
We’ve taken the effort of learning & understanding compliance and put it in an easy-to-use, accurate tool. ADA Section 508 Compliance for WordPress is official! Please reach out to us for a demo or to use the tool for yourself or your clients. We’d love to help.
Learn more about our ADA Plugin Compliance Tool for WordPress launching Spring 2017.
