Introducing a New Tool for Website Accessibility for Your Medical Practice
A few months ago we looked at ways to ensure that your medical practice website is accessible for those with handicaps and disabilities. Within that conversation, we noted a few practical tips for creating an accessible medical website.
Medical Web Pros would like to present a new tool for ensuring your site is meeting accessibility needs. But before we get into all of that, let's take a brief moment and have a little refresher.
What is Web Accessibility?
Web accessibility refers to making websites usable for people with disabilities. It involves designing and developing websites in a way that people with disabilities, such as those with visual, auditory, motor, and cognitive impairments, can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the website and its content.
Web accessibility ensures that everyone has equal access to information and services on the web, regardless of their abilities. This includes individuals who use assistive technologies, such as screen readers, to access the web.
ADA
The ADA is the Americans with Disabilities Act, an American civil rights law passed in 1990. It’s America’s most important law regarding accessibility and civil rights for people with disabilities. In 2018, the DOJ clarified that the ADA covers web accessibility.
The law prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life, including jobs, schools, transportation, and all public and private places open to the general public. Since 2018, the ADA also covers websites, as they’re considered public places of accommodation. That is why making your website accessible is crucial for meeting ADA legal requirements.
It’s important to note that the ADA does not specify the criteria for a compliant website, yet today's industry standard is to adhere to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG).
WCAG
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is a massive guidebook that explains how accessible websites should look and operate for people with disabilities. While it is not stated in the ADA, the WCAG has been widely accepted as the industry standard for being ADA-compliant.
The Medical Web Pros ADA Compliance Solution
So, now that' we have covered that, let's look at what our solution is and how it works.
Our new ADA Compliance tool will help you stand out amongst the competition as an organization that cares about all of its visitors.
A Few of the Highlights of this New ADA Function are as Follows:
- Gives users with disabilities easier access to your website
- Expand market reach and attract substantially more customers
- Meet legal requirements such as WCAG, ADA, Section 508, and AODA
- Provide Certifications of Performance
- Daily Compliance Monitoring & Monthly Compliance Auditing
Our system utilizes two applications that together achieve compliance. The accessibility interface is responsible for all the UI and design-related adjustments, while the AI-powered background process handles the more complex requirements - optimization for screen readers and for keyboard navigation. This interface is a session-based design and UI adjustment tool that makes accessibility modifications based on a user's individual needs. All adjustments are compliant with WCAG 2.1 AA & AAA requirements.
The application covers the following impairments
- Blind
- Motor Impaired
- Cognitive Disorder
- Epileptics
- Vision Impaired
- Hearing Impaired
Interested in Learning More?
Are you ready to get your website in a place where accessibility is not an issue. Give us a call or fill out the form below, and one of our representatives will contact you shortly to discuss your needs.