The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed in 1990, prohibiting discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life, including places that are open to the general public. As consumers largely interact with brands online, it’s just as important for businesses to ensure their digital property is accessible to all.
There are generally accepted industry standards of website accessibility as outlined in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0, 2.1, and 2.2). The guidelines and success criteria defined by the WCAG are organized under four fundamental principles of accessibility.
Perceivable: Users must be able to perceive the information presented (it cannot be invisible to all of their senses).
Operable: Users must be able to operate the site interface and navigate the website.
Understandable: Users must be able to understand the information and operation of the website.
Robust: Users must be able to access and interpret content via a wide variety of evolving user agents, including assistive technologies.
Lodging operators that ensure their websites comply with accessibility standards provide a more user-friendly experience for all—which is not only the right thing to do but results in increased bookings too.
What Makes an Accessible Website?
The way a website is programmed affects whether it is accessible to people with disabilities or not. For example, many people with disabilities, including vision and hearing impairments and limited fine motor control, rely on assistive technologies such as text-to-speech screen readers, refreshable Braille displays, and keyboard navigation to access the internet.
Your web designer should be familiar with the standards set by the WCAG and can ensure that all information and elements necessary for understanding, navigating, and using your website are accessible—including your online booking engine.
Here’s an overview of the steps that can be taken to improve website accessibility for all:
Perceivable
- Have text alternatives (ALT text) for non-textual elements, for example, ALT tags for all images, icons, and graphics, short summaries of audio and video files, and text labels for buttons, links, and other calls-to-action.
- Offer closed captions and transcripts for multimedia files to help those who cannot hear audio or see video.
- Enable your content to be presented in multiple ways. Headings, input fields, etc. should be marked-up correctly, and the sequence of information should stay the same regardless of presentation.
- For users with limited sight and hearing, make content accessible by ensuring the foreground and background have enough contrast, font is easy to read, text is easily resizable, and audio can be paused, stopped, and the volume changed.
- Ensure documents are available in HTML text-based formats as screen readers cannot always read PDF files or images.
- Audio signals such as error sounds should also be displayed visually, for example, with a text alert.
Operable
- For users that are unable to operate a mouse, ensure web content is navigable by keyboard. This includes navigating through menus, playing videos (videos should only play on demand), exiting pop-ups, and accessing and completing the online booking process and other forms.
- For visitors that use input modalities other than a keyboard, enable those modalities to work with your site as easily as possible. Don’t use only components that require high dexterity or components that can be turned on accidentally (at the very least, you need an undo function). Links and buttons should be easy to activate by touch.
- Ensure users have enough time to absorb content. To help people who need more time to type text, operate controls, or process instructions, allow users to stop or change time limits and pause moving or scrolling content.
- Users should easily be able to orientate themselves throughout your website. This is helped by ensuring content is well organized and pages are clearly labeled and by providing multiple ways to find relevant pages and ways to skip repetitive content blocks.
- Avoid flashing content or provide a clear warning to prevent causing seizures or other physical reactions to photosensitive viewers. Give viewers ways to turn off animations.
Understandable
- Ensure text is easily understandable by naming the web page’s primary language, offering definitions for unusual words, and using clear and simplified words/phrases (or having simplified versions as well).
- Ensure content appears and functions in ways visitors can predict by using navigation mechanisms that are consistent throughout the site.
- Users should be able to prevent and fix mistakes when completing forms, through the use of comprehensive instructions, error messages with suggestions for fixes, and the chance to review, edit, and reverse submissions.
Robust
- Make sure content can work with current and future user tools, including different browsers and assistive technologies, by ensuring markup is valid and having a value, role, and name for non-standard user interface components.
If you’re not sure where to start, consider implementing an accessibility widget like accessiBe, which makes your website content presentable to a wide variety of users. Accessibility widgets scan your website and automatically make adjustments and/or enable users with disabilities to go through and select options for their specific requirements. You don’t have to re-work the whole website; the widget re-works it for you as needed for each user. World Web Technologies’ design clients receive a 20% discount on accessiBe services.
Last but not least, make sure your website users are informed about your property’s accessible rooms, services, and amenities too. Include information about accessible features in room descriptions, amenity lists, and throughout the website as appropriate.
As an extension of your property’s hospitality, your website should be accessible to all in order to better serve your guests and bring in more bookings. It’s a win-win for everybody.
Editor’s note: This post was last updated July 2024