Website Accessibility—Building Inclusive Digital Spaces and Maintaining ADA/WCAG Accessibility Standards

Website Accessibility: Building Inclusive Digital Spaces

This presentation will show you why ADA/WCAG compliance isn’t just a legal checkbox — it’s smart business and good design. You’ll learn how to make your website accessible to everyone, from users with disabilities to mobile visitors, while improving SEO, conversions, and overall user experience.

What You’ll Learn

1. Why Accessibility Matters
Discover how accessibility improves usability for all users — not just those with disabilities. Learn the human, social, and financial impact: one in four U.S. adults has a disability, representing over $590 billion in disposable income. Understand how accessible websites create better customer experiences, faster load times, and more inclusive digital environments.

2. Who Benefits from Accessibility
Gain insight into how ADA/WCAG standards support people with visual, hearing, mobility, and cognitive disabilities — and even help those on mobile devices, with slow connections, or temporary limitations.

3. The Business Case for ADA Compliance
Explore how accessibility improves search rankings, expands reach, and reduces operational costs. Learn how an accessible site increases conversions, supports diversity and inclusion goals, and protects your business from lawsuits.

4. Legal Landscape and Real-World Cases
Get an overview of current laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and state civil rights acts, and learn what high-profile lawsuits like Domino’s Pizza and Omni Hotels teach us about compliance risks, costs, and credibility.

5. Accessibility and SEO
See how accessible websites naturally rank higher: optimized image alt text, clear heading structures, descriptive link text, transcripts instead of PDFs, semantic HTML, and fewer animations that slow performance.

6. Best Practices for Inclusive Design
Walk through the Top 10 Accessibility Tips, from choosing an ADA-friendly content management system and WordPress theme to proper use of headings, alt text, color contrast, form labels, and ARIA roles. You’ll learn how to ensure keyboard-only navigation works smoothly and how to make dynamic content readable by screen readers.

7. Testing and Tools
Understand the importance of automated and manual testing — including using screen readers, zoom testing, and real-user testing. Learn about tools that scan for accessibility issues and how to prioritize fixes efficiently.

8. Avoiding Common Pitfalls
Identify the most frequent ADA violations — missing alt text, unlabeled form fields, empty links, poor contrast — and why accessibility “widgets” are not a reliable fix. Learn to involve users with disabilities in your testing process and to commit to long-term accessibility maintenance.

9. How to Get Help
Find out how to get support from WordPress communities, accessibility plugins, or specialized developers to remediate your website and stay compliant as WCAG standards evolve.

1. 1
WEBSITE ACCESSIBILITY
Building Inclusive Digital Spaces
and Maintaining ADA/WCAG Accessibility Standards

2. 2
BRANDING
Be seen. Be heard.
WEBSITE DESIGN
Be captivating. Be magnetic
DIGITAL MARKETING
Be discovered. Be successful.

3. 3
Kristie Staton
•Practicing brand communications since 1988
•Experiential Exhibit Design for 10 years
•Established graphic design & branding business in 1998
•Began managing website development projects in 2003.
•Built my first website in HTML in 2009.
•Since 2015 — run Creative Force, a brand strategies and digital
marketing company.
I love studying human behavior and learning about WHAT MAKES
PEOPLE CLICK.
Introduction

4. 4
What We’ll Cover
1.Why bother? Accessibility creates a better
experience for:
•Users
•Web agencies
•Companies
2.Lawsuits
3.Tips to enhance accessibility
4.WordPress and page builders
5.Testing
6.Solutions and Tools

5. 5
The Good News
Accessibility provides a better experience for
EVERYBODY!

6. 6
Impacted Population
•1 in 4 U.S. adults have a disability.
•Spending power — $590 billion in
after-tax disposable income for
U.S. working-age people with
disabilities.

7. 7
Who Accessibility Helps
Blind and visually
impaired people &
colorblind people
1
Deaf and
hard-of-hearing
people
2
People with
cognitive
disabilities
3
People unable to
use a traditional
keyboard and
mouse
4
People with
seizure disorders
5
The elderly and
less tech-savvy
people
6
People on mobile
devices or slow
connections
7
People with
temporary or
situational
limitations
8
Screen readers
Contrasting color palettes
Captioning
ASL Interpreter Avatar
Born w/ Dyslexia
Traumatic brain injury
Paraplegia or
Cerebral Palsy
Bothered by flashing
images or text
Will benefit from
well planned journey
Accessible websites
load more quickly
Break arms or in public
space without headphones

8. 8
Accessibility Helps Agencies
1.Take on bigger, more high-value projects and clients.
•Federally funded websites, including colleges and
universities, government/public sector agencies,
grant-funded websites, etc.
•Enterprise and other large businesses
2.Accessibility provides greater opportunities for
recurring revenue.
•Monitoring
•Remediation — web accessibility guidelines are
constantly changing

9. 9
Accessibility Benefits Businesses
1.Improves SEO.
2.Increases reach and conversions.
3.Reduces ongoing operational costs.
4.Aligns with organizational social objectives.
5.Increases regulatory compliance and
reduces risk of a lawsuit or fine.
Estimated cost of an accessibility lawsuit: $350K+

10. 10
Accessibility Improves SEO
Accessible websites rank better in search engines
because it aligns with many SEO tactics.
1.Image alt text, most lawsuits reference this issue
2.Proper headings <h1> (Screen reader users can
use heading structure to navigate content.)
3.Meaningful link anchor text (Not “click here”)
4.Transcripts, adding web pages instead of PDFs =
more long form content
5.Semantic HTML structure (allows browsers and
search engines to better interpret content)
6.Fewer animations = less JavaScript and faster
loading times

11. 11
Accessibility Increases Conversions
In a 2019 report, researchers found that 2% of all
eCommerce transactions are completed by people
who are blind - $10.3 billion.
Many accessibility features benefit everyone, which
means a better user experience overall.
Reduce bounce rates and increase conversion rates
when you put a more conscious effort into user
journeys and website design.

12. 12
Accessibility Reduces Operational Costs
If people with disabilities cannot "serf-serve" on the
web, they will have to call-in or walk-in to get the
information they need to complete a purchase.
How much is your (or your employee's) time worth?
How much can the business save if more
transactions can be completed online without
personalized customer service?

13. 13
Helps Align with Organizational Values
Accessibility and including people with disabilities is
part of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Live corporate values around inclusion or giving
back to community.
Not just for the public: website accessibility is part
of being an Equal Opportunity Employer.

14. 14
Lawsuit Fun Facts
•In January, 2022, American Bar Association
states lawsuit numbers are at a record high.
•Includes websites and mobile apps.
•Most claims are filed by people with sight or hearing
disabilities
•Commonly allege discrimination
•Most suits are settled before going to litigation.
•Most are coming out of New York, Florida and California
•Federal and state laws
•Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
(Federal)
•California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act (State)
•New York State and City Human Rights Laws (State)
•None of these laws or their regulations specifically
address websites or contain any standards for
website accessibility.

15. 15
Domino’s Pizza Lawsuit — Plaintiff Wins
Domino’s Pizza lost a website accessibility lawsuit after nearly
five years of intensive litigation (Robles v. Domino’s Pizza).
Plaintiff was not able to order online and there was a 45-minute
wait time for call-in orders.
The court only awarded the plaintiff $4,000 in damages. The
attorney’s fees and costs that Domino’s will likely have to pay the
plaintiff will be much higher.

16. 16
Omni Hotels Lawsuit — Plaintiff Loses
In a case against Omni Hotels (Thurston v. Omni Hotels), the
plaintiff lost after a jury trial because the jury did not believe that
the plaintiff went to the website with the intent to patronize the
business.
The plaintiff argued, “A person can dream,” which was not a
compelling enough argument to claim personal damages.

17. 17
Other Lawsuits
Visually Impaired
Fox News Network
Winn Dixie
Nike
Blue Apron
Burger King Amazon
Target
Netflix
Hearing Impaired
Plaintiffs include: individuals, national associations
CNN

18. 18
Improvement for Cognitive Disabilities
Is it understandable?
•Appropriately targeted language/reading level
•Supplemental representation of information
•Graphics, videos, audio players, graphs, etc.
•Summaries or excerpts before long articles
•Understandable functionality
•Navigation structure, form interactions, available
tooltips, etc.

19. 19
Top 10 Tips for Accessibility
Choose a content management system that supports accessibility.
Don’t forget to choose a theme that is also accessible.
Use headings correctly to organize the structure of your content.
(<h1>, <h2>)
•Use <h1> for the primary title of the page. Avoid using an <h1> for anything
other than the title of the website and the title of individual pages.
•Use headings to indicate and organize your content structure.
•Do not skip heading levels (e.g., go from an <h1> to an <h3>), as screen
reader users will wonder if content is missing.
Include proper alt text for images.
Screen reader users should be able to understand the message conveyed by
the use of images on the page (an SEO conundrum).
1
2
3

20. 20
Top 10 Tips for Accessibility
Give your links unique and descriptive names.
•Visually-impaired users can use their screen readers to scan for links.
•Screen reader users often do not read the link within the context of the rest of
the page. Using descriptive text properly explains the context of links to the
screen reader user. (“Click Here” is not helpful. Instead…Learn more by reading
the page About Us.)
Use color with care.
•Red-green color deficiency affects approximately 8% of the population.
•Using ONLY colors such as these (especially to indicate required fields in a form)
will prevent these individuals from understanding your message.
•Chart and heat maps that display important information should use colors that
display contrast to all people (blue and yellow palette).
4
5

21. 21
Top 10 Tips for Accessibility
Design your forms for accessibility.
•Use the <label> tag or an ARIA property to associate the label text with the form
field. (Accessible Rich Internet Applications)
Use tables for tabular data, not for layout.
Do not create the layout of a website using a table.
Ensure that all content can be accessed with the keyboard alone
in a logical way.
•Users with mobility disabilities, including repetitive stress injuries, may
not be able to use a mouse or trackpad.
•These people are able to access content through the use of a keyboard
by pressing the "tab" or "arrow" keys, or through the use of alternative
input devices such as single-switch input or mouth stick.
•As a result, the tab order should match the visual order, so keyboard-
only users are able to logically navigate through site content.
7
8
6

22. 22
Top 10 Tips for Accessibility
Use ARIA roles and landmarks (but only when necessary).
•ARIA is a complex, powerful technical specification for adding
accessibility information to elements that are not natively accessible.
•Examples of appropriate ARIA usage include:
•Adding alerts to notify screen reader users of dynamic page
changes, such as stock tickers and search filters.
•Making complex, interactive widgets such as date pickers accessible
to screen reader users.
Make dynamic content accessible.
When content updates dynamically (i.e. without a page refresh), screen
readers may not be aware. This includes screen overlays, lightboxes, in-
page updates, popups, and modal dialogs. Keyboard-only users may be
trapped in page overlays. Magnification software users might be zoomed
in on the wrong section of the page.
9
10

23. 23
Accessibility by Builder
Has accessibility documentation
•Beaver Builder
•Elementor
Doesn't have accessibility documentation
•Divi
•Oxygen
•Visual Composer
•WPBakery

24. 24
Choosing a Builder
•Does it have skip links? (An internal link at the
beginning of a hypertext document that permits users
to skip navigational material and quickly access the
document's main content. Imagine Amazon nav.)
•Does it use proper HTML tags (or allow you to set them)
for key elements (nav, aside, main, button, etc.) ?
•Is the navigation menu keyboard accessible?
•Does the builder provide a way for you to add ARIA
attributes to elements without editing code?
•Is there an ARIA label or hidden text on ambiguous links
created by the builder?

25. 25
Common Page Builder Problems
•Missing focus states
•Clickable elements not keyboard focusable
•Headings out of order
•Poor color contrast
•Jump links visually scroll the user down but don't
move focus
•Incorrect use of ARIA attributes or roles (bad code)
•Anything that requires a mouse and can't be
reached with a keyboard only

26. 26
Know Which Modules NOT to Use
Be cautious with "flashy" modules or settings:
•Accordions
Content that is initially hidden needs extra coding to be
accessible.
•Carousels
Having content automatically disappear can cause loss of
focus, forcing the user back to the top of the page.
Distracting for people with cognitive disabilities.
•Forms
Requires extra coding. Gravity Forms has accessibility
documentation.
•Animations
May cause dizziness, nausea, disorientation, migraines,
and even seizures. Use “pause, stop, or hide” commands.

27. 27
Testing for Problems
1.Run an automated scanning tool to check for
obvious accessibility problems.
2.Manually test a representative page of every
type (home, archives + singles, and any pages
with special features):
a.With a keyboard only
b.With a screen reader
c.With the website zoomed at least 200%
3.Resolve all issues from scan and manual testing.
4.Bring in screen reader users or other users with
disabilities for user testing to confirm
accessibility.

28. 28
Why Start With Automated Scans?
Speed up identification of many problems in
bulk and rapidly provide a full site assessment.
Don't waste auditor or user tester time
identifying and reporting on problems that can
be identified automatically.
Saved Time = Saved Cost

29. 29
Suggestions
•Fix the technical basics. The most common ADA lawsuit complaints
about websites are missing alt text, missing labels, empty links,
redundant links, and missing page titles. For apps, they include
incompatibility with screen reader technology, missing alt text, and
missing navigation links.
•Don’t rely on widgets to correct accessibility issues. Several recent
ADA lawsuit settlements have involved companies relying on
accessibility widgets that are marketed as automated fix-all solutions
but which have been proven largely ineffective.
•Include people with disabilities in your user testing. Though
automated scans are a helpful first step in identifying problems, they
cannot always emulate the nuances of human interactions with digital
interfaces. User testing that includes people with disabilities gives you
a more holistic picture of your website’s or app’s user experience.
•Commit to long-term maintenance. No software can instantly identify,
let alone fix, all of your digital accessibility problems once and for all.
The digital landscape is ever-evolving, as are human users. True
accessibility requires a long-term, comprehensive digital accessibility
testing, remediation, and maintenance program.

30. 30
What if I Don't Know How to Fix Issues?
1.Contact page builder support.
2.Search for a plugin to remediate a specific
problem.
3.Ask for support in the WordPress
Accessibility Facebook group.
4.Hire a developer or company versed in
accessibility.

31. 31
Get Connected to Learn More
WP Accessibility Facebook Group
facebook.com/groups/wordpress.accessibility

32. 32
Recap
1.Why bother? Accessibility creates a better
experience for:
•Users
•Web agencies
•Companies
2.Lawsuits
3.Tips to enhance accessibility
4.WordPress and page builders
5.Testing
6.Solutions

33. 33
WANT TO KNOW HOW
WE CAN SUPPORT YOUR GOALS
LET’S TALK
336-407-5275

34. 34
and they all browsed
happily ever after