Category: Web Accessibility – Did You Know?
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Did you know that HTML code validation is an important part of ensuring ADA compliance of your website?
All web pages must have complete start and end tags, be nested according to their specifications, not contain duplicate attributes, and IDs must be unique. To ensure ADA compliance, use our free html validation plugin to identify and correct validation errors in your pages. The pro extension may be used to correct many of HTML…
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Animated GIFs are a fun way to add interest to your website but did you know that they might be a violation of ADA requirements?
Animated gifs that repeat non-stop or more than 3 times in one second should be avoided. To ensure compliance, animated images should stop after 5 seconds or users should be given a way to pause. They must also include alt text and if they contain blinking or flashing they should not flash more than 3…
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Did you know that playing music or video on your website can violate Web Accessibility standards?
If any audio plays automatically for more than 3 seconds, either a mechanism must be available at the top of the page to pause or stop the audio, or a mechanism must be available to control audio volume independently from the overall system volume level. Reference: WCAG 2.1 (Level A) – 1.4.2
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What are Skip Links?
The main content is not usually the first thing on a webpage. This makes it difficult for screen reader users to locate the actual content. Skip links are used on websites to address this problem. These special links are placed at the top of each page to bypass navigation blocks and other decorative content. A…
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Did you know that not including a sitemap, search box or other similar feature on your website is a violation of ADA requirements?
Users are accustomed to using a variety of methods of finding content on websites. Many users prefer search, others prefer navigation menus, and some prefer to use a sitemap. For some users the choice might be determined by a particular feature’s ease of use. For example, users with disabilities might find it easier to use…
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What is image alt text and when should it be used?
Alternate text, also called alt tags and alt descriptions, describes images to visually impaired users. Without alternative text, the content of an image will not be available to screen reader users. Each image that conveys meaning or is used as link content must include alternate text unless including the alternate text would create redundancy (e.g.…
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Did you know that opening links in a new window may confuse your users?
While it is a common practice to open external links in a new window it should never be done without first notifying the user. There are many ways to notify your users. You can add a notice such as (opens in a new window) to the link text or the title attribute. CSS may be…