As a business owner, you may not be familiar with all the technicalities of digital marketing, but ensuring your website and marketing materials comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is crucial. Accessibility is about making your content usable by everyone, including people with disabilities. Non-compliance can lead to lawsuits, particularly in today’s growing digital landscape. This blog will help you navigate ADA compliance for websites and email marketing, with simple steps to protect your business.
In addition to ADA, your website should follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which offer specific guidelines to ensure web accessibility.
General Practices In Digital Marketing
These practices apply across both your website and email marketing campaigns, ensuring a consistent and inclusive experience for all users.
1. Alt Text for Images, Graphics, and Tables
Adding alt text to images, graphics, and tables allows users with visual impairments to understand visual content through screen readers. For instance, an image of a product on your website or in an email should have descriptive alt text like, “Image of blue cotton T-shirt.”
Without alt text, screen reader users would miss out on important information. This is a common area where businesses face lawsuits.
2. Accessible PDFs
If your website or emails include downloadable PDFs, they need to be accessible. Accessible PDFs include tags that allow screen readers to navigate and interpret the document correctly.
3. Poor Color Contrast
Text that doesn’t have enough contrast with its background can be difficult to read for people with low vision or color blindness. For example, light gray text on a white background would be hard for many users to read. Following WCAG guidelines for sufficient color contrast ensures your content is legible for everyone.
ADA Compliant Websites
1. Video Transcripts and Captions
If your website features video content, you must provide captions and transcripts. Captions allow people who are deaf or hard of hearing to follow the audio content, while transcripts provide a text-based version of what is said in the video. This is essential for accessibility.
2. Keyboard Navigation
Many users with disabilities rely on keyboard navigation because they cannot use a mouse. Ensuring that your website can be navigated using only a keyboard is a critical part of ADA compliance. All interactive elements, such as forms, links, and buttons, should be accessible via keyboard shortcuts.
3. Inaccessible Online Forms
Forms on your website must be easy to fill out for people using screen readers or other assistive technologies. This includes adding proper labels for form fields, offering clear instructions, and providing error messages when fields are missed.
ADA Compliant Websites
Here are the specific practices to ensure that your email marketing campaigns are both accessible and compliant with regulations.
1. Opt-In and Consent for Email Marketing
For email marketing, it’s essential to ensure that customers have explicitly opted in to receive communications from your business. This means they should clearly understand what they are signing up for and give their consent before you send them marketing emails. Make sure your sign-up forms are transparent and easy to understand, allowing users to make informed choices. Additionally, avoid tracking user data (like read rates or locations) without informing them and getting their permission. This practice not only builds trust but also helps you comply with privacy regulations.
2. Email Accessibility
Emails need to be accessible, too. Just like on your website, using alt text for images in your emails ensures that people using screen readers can understand the content. Additionally, ensure your email design is simple and readable, with clear, labelled links and enough contrast between text and background.
Recent Legal Developments and Their Impact
The legal landscape around ADA compliance is growing more complex, especially in digital marketing. Two significant legal trends highlight the importance of getting compliance right:
- Spy Pixels in Email Marketing: Businesses are facing lawsuits for tracking user behavior without consent, with penalties reaching $1,000 per email. If your email campaigns use tracking tools, make sure you’re getting clear opt-in from users.
- Lack of Alt Text on Websites: Companies have faced legal action for failing to provide alt text for images, making their websites inaccessible to blind users. This can result in fines and settlements, which are easily avoided by adding descriptive text to all visual content.
Need help to make sure your digital marketing is ADA Compliant?
ADA compliance may seem overwhelming, but by taking simple steps—such as adding alt text to images, ensuring keyboard navigation, providing captions for videos, and securing consent for email marketing—you can protect your business from legal risks and make your content accessible to everyone.
Not sure where to start? Work with Native Gains, a digital marketing expert who understands ADA compliance and can help make sure your website and email marketing meet these important standards.
Contact us today to ensure your website and emails are ADA-compliant and accessible to all customers.
