While researching web content accessibility, I stumbled upon some staggering statistics. I noticed that many people with disabilities are affected by website accessibility issues.
Just imagine that around 15% of the world's population has some type of disability, as reported by the World Health Organization. In the USA alone, approximately 61 million adults, or about 1 in 4 adults, have a disability.
It's about more than just missing out on a potential audience. By not making your law firm website ADA-compliant, you're not just ignoring a necessity but a legal and ethical imperative. It's about respecting human rights, ensuring accessibility, and meeting legal requirements.
If you want to show that you care about your potential clients, ensure that you follow the ADA standards and make your law firm’s site accessible to everyone.
The ADA stands for the Americans with Disabilities Act. During the 1990s, a civil rights law was enacted to protect people with disabilities from discrimination and ensure equal access to public life, services, and accommodations. This law applies to government, transportation, employment, communications, and public accommodations (restaurants, libraries, retail stores, hotels, etc.).
The law does not explicitly mention website accessibility, but recent public lawsuits raise questions about whether it applies to websites and physical premises. The U.S. government has provided clear guidelines for website accessibility under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), specifically for businesses open to the public (B2C) and government-funded organizations.
As the internet grew, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) became law. That means businesses are responsible for offering equal accommodation in digital and in-person spaces. For instance, individuals who use wheelchairs require ramps to access buildings, and companies should allow individuals to take tests that may require accommodation, such as taking oral exams instead of written ones.
Making law firm websites accessible to everyone should be standard practice. Many countries outside the U.S. support ADA compliance and ensure websites are accessible to avoid legal action. A person with a disability can sue the owner if a website doesn’t comply with the ADA, and that has become increasingly common.
Websites must comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act Standards for Accessible Design to allow people with disabilities to use assistive technologies to access online content and legal services. Without this, your website may be inaccessible to a significant portion of your customer base, leading to lost revenue and a tarnished reputation.
Benefits of an ADA-compliant website for your law firm:
It's time to take action and make your website accessible. Fortunately, creating an ADA-compliant website is simple. With this in mind, let’s plan for inclusivity and adhere to ADA compliance.
Straightforward navigation and web design mean different things, but they all involve making websites more accessible for people with disabilities. Screen readers and live users interpret website navigation differently. Keyboard navigation is essential for people with motor and visual disabilities. Ensure that the navigation menu on your law site stays consistent throughout all pages, and add a "skip to content" button at the beginning of each page.
Navigation links are designed to be easily navigable using keyboards and screen readers. Include only essential pages rather than the entire site to avoid user confusion and show search engine crawlers that your site has a clear and organized architecture.
Breadcrumbs assist search engines in website navigation and page categorization. Google shows breadcrumbs in search results. Moreover, people can easily track their location on a website, including their distance from the homepage.
Please take a look at two following examples:
Which variant sounds better? The second one, doesn't it?
For screen readers, links must be easily recognizable, help people decide whether to follow them and tell search engines what the linked page is about. Describe your links and provide context about where they lead.
Avoid using naked links. Keyboards and screen readers read the anchor text aloud to the user, and naked links show the full URL as anchor text, confusing the user. Use descriptive and concise anchor text, valuable for law firm SEO and accessibility reasons.
When you create content for your law firm’s website, consider how to make it accessible for people with disabilities. For those who use screen readers or other assistive aids, use clear and unique page titles and headings in the right order to better understand the structure of your content and find the information they need.
Use the H1 heading style instead of just increasing the font size, and follow the heading hierarchy with H1, H2, H3, and so on. To improve readability and accessibility, include short sentences, bulleted lists, short paragraphs, and summary sections and avoid unnecessary details.
You can use SE Ranking AI Writer to simplify the entire process and quickly generate the structure of your content by including up to 20 targeted keywords. You just need to specify your topic and use suggestions from the Topics menu.
Images on your law firm website need Alt text and a brief image description to help screen readers work correctly. Alt text serves as a written alternative to the visual elements of a web page, including .JPEGS, .PNGS, and .GIFS.
Descriptive alt text allows visually impaired users to access and interact with your law firm’s website fully. Without it, web pages are inaccessible and exclude a significant portion of the population. If there's no alt-text section available, include a description as a caption under any photos.
Avoid using charts or graphs that depend only on color to show differences. Instead, convey information using patterns, fills, or borders. Pay attention to the color contrast and font choices on your law firm's website.
Videos are one of the most popular media, with the global digital video viewership reaching 3.5 billion in 2023. However, without captions, these videos will not be accessible to people with hearing impairments or sensory issues.
If your law firm website includes videos, webinars, or podcasts, ensure that you add captions and audio descriptions. Another way to enhance accessibility is to create transcripts. You can publish them on the same page as the video to allow skim through the transcripts and enable screen readers to read them.
Create accessible CTA buttons to encourage everyone to take action. Your law firm’s website should have clear names for its call-to-action buttons. The text on the button itself usually serves as this name. We suggest using an aria-label for each button to provide screen readers with the right information.
Avoid using general text like “click here,” and instead use action-driven text like “read more about our legal services.” For optimal readability, use of color contrasts with a minimum ratio of 4.5-to-1.
Adapt the size and position of your CTA to the mobile version to keep it practical. Put your CTA at the top of the page to help users see it without having to scroll down.
Making your law firm ADA-compliant is an ongoing process. Ensure that your website's accessibility is regularly evaluated and areas for improvement are pinpointed. Update it as needed, especially when you make specific changes or add new content.
As you provide legal services to your clients, you can ask them to test your website and suggest how you can improve it for them. You can publish a pledge for website accessibility on your site. Conduct quarterly audits of your website’s performance for ADA compliance. Ensure that your data is secure on different devices and use SSL certificates.
Also, even if you follow all the ADA regulations, there will always be nuances for law firms. To avoid them, you need professional business insurance to protect your clients from ADA-related lawsuits and cyber incidents.
It is essential to make tables and online forms accessible. Each form element must have descriptive text or HTML, such as buttons, drop-down menus, or text boxes. Ensure you provide larger text, good contrast, and careful use of colors to help everyone interact with your law firm’s site.
For better accessibility, add an auto-fill option to forms and use web forms or Google Forms instead of PDF or Word documents. Switching to CSS instead of relying on tables for website layout is recommended. Consider using unmanaged hosting, which gives you complete control over customization, from scalability to performance optimization and security.
Adding a public sitemap serves as a detailed map of your website’s layout. It lets everyone easily navigate and find the information they need, improving accessibility for those users who rely on screen readers, voice commands, or other navigation methods.
XML sitemaps are great for search engine crawlers, while HTML ones clearly and accessibly show all essential pages on your website. They are usually shown in a clickable format in the footer, making it easier for users to navigate your website.
Your law firm’s website needs to meet ADA standards. This process may take time, but it is worth it to avoid lawsuits and to help more people access your legal services. Use the basics mentioned in this article to get it right. If you feel overwhelmed, ask ADA experts for help.
