Over the past few years, website accessibility has become a consistent topic of conversation with many of our clients. In the past, plugins designed to help with accessibility were often viewed as a straightforward solution, but with new requirements and standards, accessibility has become increasingly important not only for users with disabilities, but also from a legal standpoint.
In 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice finalized new rules requiring many state and local government entities to ensure their websites and mobile applications meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards. This impacts organizations such as public universities, school districts, cities, counties and other public entities. Additionally, companies and organizations that may not currently fall into these categories are beginning to prepare their websites in case future requirements expand to include their business or organization.
For this reason, over the past several years, we’ve helped clients improve accessibility for websites connected to universities, school districts and nonprofit organizations. These updates and improvements not only help support compliance efforts, but also create a better and more accessible experience for users.
Common Mistakes
Some of the most common accessibility issues we encounter include:
- Poor color contrast between text and backgrounds
- Missing or inaccurate image alt text
- Form fields without proper labels
- Empty or incorrect heading structures
- Links that are unclear or not descriptive enough
One of the best ways to identify accessibility issues is through trusted scanning tools and software that review websites and generate reports of potential problems. However, because websites constantly evolve with new images, content and plugins, accessibility is not a one-time update. For organizations that regularly update their own websites, understanding accessibility best practices is an important part of maintaining an accessible site over time. For this reason, we also help train clients on how to better understand accessibility requirements and ongoing website maintenance.
Overall, our role at Jackson Sky is to help organizations better understand accessibility issues, identify common barriers and improve the overall usability of their websites.
For organizations beginning to explore accessibility improvements, starting now is a great idea rather than waiting until legal deadlines are right around the corner.
If you are interested in learning more about accessibility and your website, feel free to get in touch!
Related Case Study
Jackson Sky created the logo and website for the Center for Food Conservation & Waste Reduction. Color palettes were specifically chosen to pass contrast requirements, and accessibility scans and reports were used to help the site meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards.