Definition of ADA Compliance and the Accessibility Guidelines – AccessiBe

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You need to understand the meaning of ADA and the compliance guidelines for its applications for your website. In this article, we will have a look at the fundamentals of the Americans with Disabilities Act and how this law defines disability and public accommodations in various titles under it.

Understanding ADA – AccessiBe

Americans with Disabilities Act is a Federal Government rule passed as a law in 1990 by President Bush and had been amended by defining the types of disabilities and accommodations being covered. It is meant to protect the rights of people with disabilities and also to protect their civil rights against discriminatory practices. AccessiBe specifies that there are different areas where ADA offers protection for the civil rights of the disabled.

The first area is employment, which applies to private employment as well as government employment.

Next are the state and federal government services. Examples are city and state buildings and public utility infrastructures.

Public accommodations. For example, libraries, movie halls, schools, etc. Nowadays, websites and public access web spaces also come under the category of public accommodations.

Commercial facilities. Examples are hotels, restaurants, retail establishments, etc. The websites of commercial facilities also come under this definition.

Finally, transportation facilities. Examples include public transit facilities and airlines etc.

Disability guidelines

Under ADA, disability is the physical or mental impairment of an individual, which may limit people from performing any major life activities. Examples of major life activities include but are not limited to the right to eating, working, standing, dressing, and fully concentrating at work. In order to avail of the legal protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act, a person can seek legal support on being documented as per the record of disability.

Title III of reasonable accommodation

A reasonable accommodation is a change in the job environment or the position, which will allow the employee or user to successfully perform the essential functions in a complete manner. Some examples of reasonable accommodation include providing comfortable work schedules, ensuring ergonomic office space, making workstations accessible for wheelchairs, etc. There are various titles under ADA, and reasonable accommodation for people with disabilities comes under Title III of the Act.

Title III of reasonable accommodation now also indirectly covers web accessibility. The websites should be compliant with ADA regulations as specified by many court rulings in the meantime. This is meant to ensure accessibility for people with disabilities too who use online services. Even though there are no specific regulations related to accessibility compliance for websites as per ADA 1990, websites are now generally considered entities of public accommodation and need to be compliant with the accessibility regulations.

By considering these accessibility requirements, W3C (Worldwide Web Consortium) had made some mandates in terms of accessibility requirements of public websites. The WCAG 2.0 guidelines specify the accessibility requirements for websites and web applications to be compliant with the accessibility rules. AccessiBe is a web accessibly consultant service that offers many tools and features for the web developers to ensure accessibility compliance of their website.