You may have the most beautifully designed, robust, well written and lightning-fast website in your market. It may perform very well on mobile, drive conversions and generate a ton of orders and qualified applications for your staffing agency.
But is your website ADA-compliant?
If not, you could be:
- alienating job seekers and other potential site visitors with disabilities
- missing out on a huge potential talent pool of 61 million disabled Americans
- exposing yourself to non-compliance lawsuits with first-offense fines of up to $75,000!
Even the most attractive, high-tech sites can have compliance issues.
Here are the most common ADA compliance issues we see in today’s staffing websites:
- No alt tags on images and non-text content. A compliant website includes text alternatives for all non-text content, including elements like pictures or any type of content not readable by a screen reader.
- Lack of heading hierarchy. Properly structured, consistent heading hierarchy is necessary for individuals using assistive technology. Organizing content headings with H1, H2 and H3 tags helps screen readers correctly interpret what content comes first, as well as which types of content are most important on a page.
- Non-compliant plugins. For a site to be compliant, its plugins must also meet WCAG 2.0 accessibility standards.
- Improperly structured navigation. This is important for people using screen readers, as well as those with limited mobility who are tabbing through your site. We frequently see issues such as:
- Top-tier pages on site navigation not being clickable
- Multiple “overview” pages on a website – these can confuse assistive technology
- Missing or inconsistent tab index – this may cause skipping over menu items
- Too little color contrast. Sufficient color contrast (e.g., on a CTA button that changes color when you hover over it) is essential for color-blind individuals to easily navigate through a site.
- Small font sizes. A compliant site uses a sufficiently large font size so copy is easily readable.
- Inability to skip navigation. This lack of functionality can be frustrating for people using screen readers. Without it, users have to listen to the entire menu every time they navigate to a new page (which may cause higher bounce rates).
- Video without transcript. Videos on compliant sites also include accessible transcripts or closed captioning.
- Job board / career portal can’t be navigated with a screen reader. This is a key issue for website compliance as it relates to discrimination against job seekers with disabilities.
Want to learn more about ADA compliance – and how it impacts your staffing website?
Haley Marketing has a team of WCAG compliance experts who are here to help you navigate this complex issue. For more information, or to schedule an audit of your website, connect with one of our marketing educators.
Please note: The information in this blog post is for educational purposes only; it should not be considered legal advice.
