Viewing website not ADA compliant

website not ADA compliant



User: Susan S. 4 years ago
Whoa we just got a letter from our Chamber of Commerce that 5 local businesses have been sued because their websites did not comply with the ADA for people with disabilities.

We were told to go here: https://wave.webaim.org/

And put in our website and if that's the standard we totally fail. Here is just one of the websites we have:

http://www.skydivethemills.com/

I can't make things like shapes and the orange lines have alt. text. Or can I? I don't see an alt text box in Everweb for shapes.

The document doesn't specify a language, which it must to be ADA compliant - how do I do that?

Our special short time discount doesn't comply and is listed as suspicious.

The site has a <noscript> element in it and this checker site says it disables java script which screenreaders need.

Our Book Now link is out of compliance because it's not <h1 or h2> which it's not because it's not a heading.

I see that for my headings I need to list them as headings, that I can do.

But what about the rest of this, I don't want to be sued!

Susan
User: Paul-RAGESW 4 years ago
Hi Susan,

Sorry to hear about the issues you are having. I can understand this could be scary.

I have gone through your main page with the link you provided and below is my feedback, but I am not a lawyer and this is just my opinion and help. You should consult with a lawyer if you need actual legal advice.

We are already reviewing all the guidelines to make sure that creating websites that are ADA compliant is easy and possible in EverWeb.

1. You can set the language either globally or per page. To set it globally go to the File menu and select 'Edit Publishing Settings' then you will see the language popup. This video explains it in more detail: Set Website Language in EverWeb

2. If you want to include Header tags you can do that with the Header tag Widget under the 'Widgets' tab in the top right

3. I think that this tool thinks the 'Book Now' is a header because it is larger than the other text, but I'm not sure. Is it possible to contact the company that makes this tool to confirm?

4. The no script element is included on your page because you added statcounter to your site using the HTML snippet. This isn't something EverWeb adds by default. You can remove it if you like.

The warning for this says;
Quote:
Content within <noscript> is presented if java script is disabled. Because nearly all users (including users of screen readers and other assistive technologies) have java script enabled, <noscript> cannot be used to provide an accessible version of inaccessible scripted content


Which based on my interpretation of this text, and what you have added, the code is not being used to provide an accessible version of an inaccessible script. But please confirm on your end.

5. On your main page you have the red Pricing link. In EverWeb you linked the actual text box AND the text within it. To fix this warning select the shape in EverWeb and remove the link. The text will still be linked, but the actual textbox will not be and this error should disappear.

Quote:
I can't make things like shapes and the orange lines have alt. text. Or can I? I don't see an alt text box in Everweb for shapes.


6. Missing ALT links don't seem to be applied to that orange line. Those aren't images. There are 3 images without ALT tags that you can set from Inspector->Shape Options->Fill Options (you'll see the alt text field there)

Quote:
Our special short time discount doesn't comply and is listed as suspicious.


7. Based on what the tool is saying, the problem is because that link contains the words 'Click here'. If you remove that, the error should go away, but it seems to be to just be a suggestion.

Please remember, this is just my opinion and isn't legal advice in any way.

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Paul
EverWeb Developer
User: Roddy 4 years ago
After entering one of my pages into the WAVE tool, my first impression is that it is far from accurate. All the widgets I have made over the past few years use HTML5. According to the spec, the first heading in these containers should be an h1. The WAVE tool seems to disagree!

I would suspect that it is rather outdated too. I now have over 300 widgets based on the CSS Grid Layout Module which has been supported by all the major browsers for over two years. The WAVE tool interprets this as a table layout so it isn't too smart.

Another problem seems to be my use of multiple semantically correct HTML5 elements without using a role attribute. According to the w3, when used in HTML5, its purpose is for accessibility, device adaptation, server-side processing and complex data description.

It also seems to frown on the use of anchor tags for opening modal windows and even for a smooth scroll to the top function. Presumably they want us to use the button tag with a role attribute but what do I know? According to this article, the misuse of ARIA can do more harm than good.

Copying and pasting code without understanding the purpose of its content can cause problems.
The <noscript> tag is for inserting alternative content for users who have disabled java script in their browser. This used to be common practice for IE users but that browser is unsupported and shouldn't be used anyway.
Third party scripts often cause problems with other scripts and contain comments which should be removed.

The only problem caused by EverWeb I can see is the fact that the blank template is not actually blank and inserts a <footer> which we cannot remove.

EverWeb users should note that this comes under the the American Disabilities Act and only effects Americans with disabilities and their friends, families, and caregivers, private employers with 15 or more employees, businesses operating for the benefit of the public and all state and local government agencies.

If you do fall into any of these categories, you should consult THIS checklist. However, it's interesting to note that this US Government page doesn't pass the WAVE tool test either!

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Roddy

Website: http://everwebwidgets.com
Contact: http://everwebwidgets.com/ewWidgets-home/contact.html
NOTE: I am an EverWeb user and NOT affiliated with EverWeb! Any opinions expressed in this forum are my own.
User: Paul-RAGESW 4 years ago
Roddy,

Thanks for the additional information.

I reviewed the ADA checklist resource you provided by ADA.gov and it is a very good guideline to follow.

So here are some guidelines based on the checklist for EverWeb users (and really for any website)

Quote:
1. Does the top of each page with navigation links have a “skip navigation” link? (This feature directs screen readers to bypass the row of navigation links and start at the webpage content, thus enabling people who use screen readers to avoid having to listen to all the links each time they move to a new page.)


This can be done using the Scroll Positions in EverWeb.

Quote:
2. Do all links have a text description that can be read by a screen reader (not just a graphic or “click here”)?


This is generally good advice. Don't make a link where the linked text says only 'Click here'. Make it descriptive of where the link will actually take the user.

We will be improving this by allowing image title tags (which can provide extra information when a user places their mouse over an image) about the link.

Quote:
3. Do all of the photographs, maps, graphics and other images on the website currently have HTML tags (such as an “alt” tag or a long description tag) with text equivalents of the material being visually conveyed?


Make sure to go to Inspector->Shape Options-> Fill and enter a ALT tag describing what the image is for any image you have on your website. We will be improving this a bit more in EverWeb 3.1 and later to provide better control of ALT tags for images in blog posts.

Quote:
4. Are all of the documents posted on your website available in HTML or another text-based format (for example, rich text format (RTF) or word processing format), even if you are also providing them in another format, such as Portable Document Format (PDF)?


TIP: You can print your page from within your web browser and include that if you like as a downloadable PDF file.

Quote:
5. If your website has online forms, do HTML tags describe all of the controls (including all text fields, check boxes, drop-down lists, and buttons) that people can use in order to complete and submit the forms?


The EverWeb contact form will include a proper label and 'for' attribute in the HTML code. You can provide extra descriptions per form element using the Tip field for the contact form. The contact form widget in EverWeb should follow all best practices for ADA compliancy.

Quote:
6. If your website has online forms, does the default setting in drop-down lists describe the information being requested instead of displaying a response option (e.g., “your age” instead of “18 - 21”)?


This is good practice for creating forms. Make sue the options in drop down menus and checkboxes are clearly labelled. This is something you would enter in the Contact Forms, not something EverWeb would do.

Quote:
7. If a webpage has data charts or tables, is HTML used to associate all data cells with column and row identifiers?


Not applicable to EverWeb, unless you're including your own charts. In which case, you should make sure you include this extra information.

Options 7 - 10 would are up to the user building the website. Make sure to include audio and video transcripts for users.

Quote:
11. Have all webpages been designed so they can be viewed using visitors’ web browser and operating system settings for color and font?


EverWeb websites should work this way out of the box. Generally make sure there is good contrast between the written text and the background (example would be black text on a white background of course, but if you are customizing the background color and text color, make sure to make sure there is a good enough contrast between the two colors)


The rest of the checklist talks about actual policies written on your website which any user can create.

I hope this list is helpful.

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Paul
EverWeb Developer
User: Paul-RAGESW 4 years ago
Quote:
The only problem caused by EverWeb I can see is the fact that the blank template is not actually blank and inserts a <footer> which we cannot remove.


Can you explain why this is a problem? If it is an issue we can see if we can remove it if it is not used.

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Paul
EverWeb Developer
User: Susan S. 4 years ago
Wow this is very good information. Love it that the government page doesn't pass the test either. And Roddy, given what you said, if a business has less then 15 employees, they don't have to comply? I'm still going to try and make my pages as good as they can be regarding the ADA rules but that's good to know. But can you tell me where you found that info, I'd like to have it on hand just in case?

My sites have that <noscript> tag I guess because Paul said it seems to go with Statcounter I have on the page. So does that <noscript> tag affect the entire page or just the stat counter? The client (son in law) loves that he gets a weekly email from them with info about how many times the page was looked at, by whom, the country they were from and so forth. But if it is making the entire site not compliant then maybe I should take it off.

Susan
User: Susan S. 4 years ago
Oh and one last question, Paul... I use the group function often, on long pages it's an easy way to keep things together. But I just noticed I can put alt. tags in when things are grouped so I have to ungroup them to put the tag in.

My question is if after I do the alt tag I group them again the alt tag will still work with reader software for the blind, correct? Or would the grouping change that?

Susan
User: Roddy 4 years ago
Quote:
Can you explain why this is a problem? If it is an issue we can see if we can remove it if it is not used.

It's questioning the fact that there is an empty footer since I set the footer area to zero and use a widget which has <footer></footer> tags.

Quote:
So does that <noscript> tag affect the entire page or just the stat counter?


Presumably you pasted the stat code into EverWeb so you can find it and delete the noscript part which will look something like this ...

<noscript>Your browser does not support java script!</noscript>

Lots of EverWeb users seem to copy scripts and paste them "as is" into EverWeb. Most of these contain comments and are not optimised. I would advise users to post third party scripts here first if they don't know anyhting about them. The internet is littered with scripts for various things which are outdated, use obsolete syntax or could be replaced by something better.

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Roddy

Website: http://everwebwidgets.com
Contact: http://everwebwidgets.com/ewWidgets-home/contact.html
NOTE: I am an EverWeb user and NOT affiliated with EverWeb! Any opinions expressed in this forum are my own.
User: Paul-RAGESW 4 years ago
Quote:
My sites have that <noscript> tag I guess because Paul said it seems to go with Statcounter I have on the page. So does that <noscript> tag affect the entire page or just the stat counter?


It's just for stat counter but you don't need to remove it based on my interpretation of the warning you got. The warning just said that you shouldn't include something in there that wouldn't be available to a screen reader, which you didn't.


Quote:
My question is if after I do the alt tag I group them again the alt tag will still work with reader software for the blind, correct? Or would the grouping change that?


Yes, they will still work even after you group them. This is a just functionality we should improve within EverWeb to allow editing ALT tags of grouped items without ungrouping them.

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Paul
EverWeb Developer
User: Paul-RAGESW 4 years ago
Quote:
It's questioning the fact that there is an empty footer since I set the footer area to zero and use a widget which has <footer></footer> tags.


I can see about removing this if the footer is set to 0 but some functionality does require that it is there.

I will need to investigate.

-------------------------------
Paul
EverWeb Developer


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