What's the deal with ADA Website Compliance?

[djbaxter]

That's a nice article you found there, @mikepcservice.

I'll check out some of those plugins.

 

[mikepcservice]

I like the first one best and heavily thinking of trying it.

 

[Wirenut]

Is that legal for checker sites to provide that info?

I'm not sure. But I doubt they would care either way. There would be no proof of anything.

 

[djbaxter]

I don't think these are mentioned in the article you referenced above, @mikepcservice, but especially if you are already using the Yoast SEO plugin (recommended), these two used together take care of pretty much all you need I think:

One Click Accessibility

One Click Accessibility

The One Click Accessibility toolbar is the fastest plugin to help you make your WordPress website more accessible.

wordpress.org

The One Click Accessibility plugin is the fastest plugin to help you make your website more accessible.

While most accessibility issues can’t be addressed without directly changing your content, One Click Accessibility adds a number of helpful accessibility features with the minimum amount of setup and without the need for expert knowledge.

Accessibility Toolbar:
Add a toolbar toggling hat allows you to set:

• Resize font (increase/decrease)
• Grayscale
• Negative Contrast
• High Contrast
• Light Background
• Links Underline
• Readable Font
• Link to Sitemap / Feedback / Help pages

Accessibility Features:

• Enable skip to content
• Add outline focus for focusable elements
• Remove the target attribute from links
• Add landmark roles to all links
• Customizer for style adjustment

BIALTY Bulk Image Alt Texts with Yoast

Bulk Auto Image Alt Text (Alt tag, Alt attribute) optimizer (image SEO)

Auto optimize all image alt text (+ Woocommerce ), per page & product, from Yoast SEO / Rank Math optimization settings (keywords).

wordpress.org

Bialty automatically adds ALT TEXTs to your images from page/article/product titles (with Woocommerce for online store) or Yoast’s Focus Keywords, separately or combined (depending on your needs). BIALTY also allows, via a Post META Box, manual customization on your pages, with the use of ALT TEXTs other than those used with Yoast or page titles.

BIALTY works in automatic mode. Once installed, it will be active on all pages of your site, retroactively and for future content. You no longer have to think about your Alt Texts.

 

[mikepcservice]

While most accessibility issues can’t be addressed without directly changing your content,

That is what is bothering me about depending on a plugin alone. I have been talking to a programmer who handles these issues. This is what he wrote:

I'll do the basic check, provide a checklist and recommendations for what needs to be done. $15 - 1 day delivery Next one up includes that plus installing the most popular plugin, check that it works on forms, etc, plus a manual check $100 with 3 days delivery Premium includes all of that, plus check all media (up to 100 items); buttons (up to 100 buttons); font / background contrast and font size; check audio and video media have transcripts; check links to documents include size and format information; time limits and flashing; provide action plan for WCAG and ADA compliance. $500 with 7 days delivery

So to sum up guys, I am thinking it's one or the other option, either rely on a plugin alone to fix what it can and take our chances or get someone to inspect each element and fix it so no chances of getting sued. Your thoughts on this please?

 

[djbaxter]

My opinion: Use the two free plugins I posted above. Save the money.

 

[mikepcservice]

Thanks, so tomorrow I will try both then run the checker again to see what it says. Get back to you.

 

[djbaxter]

Depending on the checker, it may still report missing alt tags, etc., but look at page source and you will see they are now present.

Also, the accessibility options are accessed via a button on the site (font size, contrast, etc.), and I don't think the auto checkers will pick that up either.

 

[djbaxter]

Actually, I'm not happy with the One Click Accessibility plugin.

It crowds other elements too much on mobile devices. Need to do some more research and find something else.

Actually, it's okay I guess. I just needed to change the spacing from top and whether it appears left or right using the Customizer.

Here's another one though:

Accessibility by UserWay

UserWay’s Accessibility Widget creates a simpler and more accessible browsing experience for your users.

wordpress.org

I'm still not happy with how the buttons cover text on mobile... continuing search.

This one might be better:

Accessibly – WordPress Website Accessibility

Accessibly app is a WordPress accessibility plugin that will help your website become accessible to even more of your site visitors.

wordpress.org

Just leave the option on the settings page top right - "Accessibly app is disabled" - set to off. It still puts a small icon where you choose to position it but it's much less intrusive than the othersand much better on mobile.

 

[mikepcservice]

Oh geez, thanks for stating. I was counting on trying those 2 plugins in the morning, best alternative?

 

[djbaxter]

Try these two and see what you think:

Bulk Auto Image Alt Text (Alt tag, Alt attribute) optimizer (image SEO)

Auto optimize all image alt text (+ Woocommerce ), per page & product, from Yoast SEO / Rank Math optimization settings (keywords).

wordpress.org

Accessibly – WordPress Website Accessibility

Accessibly app is a WordPress accessibility plugin that will help your website become accessible to even more of your site visitors.

wordpress.org

Remember: leave "disability app" turned off on the settings page.

 

[mikepcservice]

ok, will do, get back to you, thx

 

[mikepcservice]

Trying out the top one now Bialty but there's no sound on the instructional video here below, does it work on your end please? Then too, it requires a monthly subscription.



Also not finding any tutorials anywhere for Accessibly??

 

[djbaxter]

I didn't try to watch the video and no, there's a free version and that's good enough. Just ignore the prompts to upgrade to pro.

There's really nothing to do except install it and activate it. You can see that it's working by viewing page source and looking for images, etc., or just search for alt in page source to see what's added.

You can tweak a few things in settings if you wish.

It grabs a lot of information from Yoast SEO - do you have that installed?

 

[mikepcservice]

On my site Yoast is installed, I am not seeing the plugin doing anything.

On my bud's heating repair site SEO Press was installed so if I have to use this plugin then I will need to have to do over all meta titles and description.

With the Accessibly plugin, as the attached image is showing is that all we're supposed to have in place for the disabled person to choose their options?

 

[djbaxter]

Yes. But turn off that huge purple button on the settings page - it's obtrusive and obscues other elements on mobile devices:

When you do that, you get a smaller less obtrusive icon on your public pagfes:

On my bud's heating repair site SEO Press was installed so if I have to use this plugin then I will need to have to do over all meta titles and description.

Alternatively, install Yoast. Then you may need to update the Yoast settings once but then the BIALTY plugin will work automatically on any future posts or pages you create.

 

[Eric Rohrback]

This definitely isn't something that just "ambulance chasers" are going for. Not sure if everyone saw this, but it's major - Domino’s Pizza was just dealt a Supreme Court blow that could reshape the ADA in the digital era

Website accessibility is very important and needs to be considered at the beginning phases of the web dev process. Like David mentioned, a lot of this is geared towards the blind using voice readers. Make sure images have appropriate titles and alt text. That's such an easy thing to do, but it may be time consuming. Hire a VA to update those elements in the WordPress Media files (if on WP).

Not having sites ADA compliant can be seen as a form of discrimination, so we need to take it seriously and do better as an industry to help clients & our own teams understand the importance. Definitely hire a developer if the site is missing key elements in the native code. Plugins are nice, but it's better to build the platform correctly from the foundation.

 

[mikepcservice]

Yes. But turn off that huge purple button on the settings page - it's obtrusive and obscues other elements on mobile devices:

When you do that, you get a smaller less obtrusive icon on your public pagfes:

Alternatively, install Yoast. Then you may need to update the Yoast settings once but then the BIALTY plugin will work automatically on any future posts or pages you create.

Disabled it as shown but not seeing that icon on my phone and it removes the previous icon from my site on the net?

Also if all the Bialty plugin does is to optimize all images then I am thinking best if we do this ourselves because by depending on the plugin to do it and if it overrides our title and alt it may not do it any better than what we have done?

 

[djbaxter]

Disabled it as shown but not seeing that icon on my phone and it removes the previous icon from my site on the net?

Clear your Wordpress cache. Then view again on mobile.

Also if all the Bialty plugin does is to optimize all images then I am thinking best if we do this ourselves because by depending on the plugin to do it and if it overrides our title and alt it may not do it any better than what we have done?

Depends on how many images you have I guess... and how diligent you have been in your media manager in adding title and alt tags. If you use images in posts and have a lot of posts, doing this manually could take some time.

Also note this:

● Alt texts added/created by BIALTY plugin ARE NOT added to MEDIA LIBRARY (which is useless as not visible by search engines). All image Alt text are added into HTML code, in frontend . Please follow instructions below, at "How to check Alt Text now?", to see your settings applied.

● Alt texts (Alt attributes, Alt tags) are NOT Title attributes (title tags). Please use BIGTA plugin (by Pagup) if you need to add title tags to your images.

Update:

Also if all the Bialty plugin does is to optimize all images then I am thinking best if we do this ourselves because by depending on the plugin to do it and if it overrides our title and alt it may not do it any better than what we have done?

In checking my images (and I do have quite a few), there were only about 6 without alt tags and of those I was only using 2 or 3. On reflection, I agree with you.

 

[Wirenut]

Not having sites ADA compliant can be seen as a form of discrimination

I really, really want off this planet.