Accessibility Standards for Designing with ADA Compliance: Guidelines for Adherence
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), first signed into law in 1990, is a crucial law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life, including design. This includes local, county, state, and federal government agencies, businesses that operate for the benefit of the public, and private and not-for-profit companies with 15 or more employees.
The ADA Standards for Accessible Design, created in 1991, provide guidelines for making public spaces and buildings accessible for people with disabilities. In 2010, the ADA was updated, setting forth new standards known as the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) associated itself with these standards, specifically the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which set criteria to make web content more accessible to people with disabilities.
ADA Compliance in Digital Design
In the digital realm, ADA compliance is mandatory for all businesses that benefit the public. This means ensuring that digital designs are accessible to individuals with visual disabilities. Adding image alt text to all digital designs is essential to allow those with visual disabilities to understand the content and context of non-text elements.
Our platform's Accessible editor automatically assigns alt text description fields, labels icons as decorative, and includes a built-in accessibility checker. Using accessible templates and an accessible editor with a Contrast Checker and Visual Simulator tool can help ensure designs are ADA-compliant.
Colour Blind Design Guidelines
When it comes to visual design, these standards reflect the recommendations made in the WCAG 2.1. For instance, using sans serif fonts such as Arial or Tahoma for body text can improve readability. Incorporating approachable fonts and using font sizes no smaller than 12 points (or 16 pixels) for any body text is also important.
Highlighting key content with negative space is a good practice. Create space between elements to allow design elements to breathe. Negative space can be any color, pattern, texture, or background image, as long as it brings important elements and content to the forefront.
When it comes to using colour, designing with ADA compliance in mind is essential. Ensuring sufficient color contrast in designs is important for improving readability for those with color vision deficiencies. The WCAG 2.1 states that color pairings with a contrast ratio of 4.5:1 and above provide sufficient accessibility for use in normal text, large text, and graphics.
A free Accessible Color Palette Generator is available to generate compliant color pairings for use in designs. For those who create charts, using colour blind friendly palettes can make your charts accessible.
Keyboard Accessibility and Responsive Design
Ensuring the design elements are keyboard accessible and the website is responsive to different screen sizes and devices is also important. This ensures that users who cannot use a mouse or touchscreen can still interact with your visual elements.
Legal Consequences of Non-Compliance
Failure to comply with the ADA can result in legal action against the organization, including fines, penalties, and other legal repercussions. Therefore, designing with ADA compliance in mind is essential not only to ensure accessibility for those with disabilities but also to avoid legal ramifications and create a better user experience overall.
In conclusion, ADA compliance is a crucial aspect of design that ensures accessibility for all users. By following the guidelines outlined in the WCAG 2.1, designers can create visually appealing, accessible, and ADA-compliant designs.
