You know, when it comes to ADA compliance, you can’t afford to take any chances. If you’re in the banking world, you know how important it is to dot the i’s, cross the t’s, and make sure everything is in order. What you might not know is there’s something big coming down the pipe — Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance.
Put simply, it means your banking website and online presence needs to be fully accessible for people with visual and hearing difficulties. That means it has to be easy to use, and be compatible with all the various software and hardware they use to access the internet — Think screen readers, braille interfaces, specialized keyboards, speech recognition, and the like.
The ADA compliance issue is pretty serious too — The Department of Justice is insisting all banking organizations meet their guidelines by 2018, with the threat of large fines if they’re not. We definitely don’t want that to happen to you.
It’s why our leisure reading includes such gems as Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 so we understand exactly what guidelines your website has to meet.
We admit it, here at RBC, we’re a little bit geeky (and a little bit cheeky). It’s why we’ve read through all of the new specifications and requirements in detail — There are over 70 of them! And it’s why we’ve got a solid, proven action plan to get your banking website to be fully compliant, fast.
When it comes to the guidelines, we find headings like “Perceivable,” “Operable,” “Understandable,” and “Robust” delicious. In face, we savor them, and more importantly, we know what they mean to keeping your banking business out of trouble.
That includes:
- Reviewing every aspect of your website to ensure it’s accessible to everyone.
- Prioritizing, recommending, and making changes to keep you compliant.
- Ensuring all your images, media, and other visual elements have text descriptions to help the visually impaired.
- Amending your media player so users can pause, rewind, and fast forward video and audio content easily.
- Your text and background have a good contrast to each other to make everything easy to read.
- Reviewing your media to make sure it’s compliant (e.g. checking your audio content has text substitutes, captions, and sign language).
- Checking your website is completely usable with just a keyboard (Mice are a no-no).
- Making sure your navigation, menus, and other interactive elements make sense and area easy for everyone to use.
- Testing out your website in a variety of different browsers so it’s usable by every member of your audience.
I mean, just look at this stuff… Do you really have time to go through everything in detail and make sure your banking website meets every single requirement? Probably not — But we do. Plus, we actually find it kind of enjoyable. We’re strange like that.
We’ve already helped banks like Litchfield Bancorp and Collinsville Savings Society, and we’re here to help you.
Get in touch today and we’ll explain exactly how we’ll make your bank website ADA compliant. Get yourself some peace-of-mind.