Web accessibility is the process in which the site and its content are adapted to the needs of users in different audiences, including people with physical or cognitive disabilities. Making the site accessible stems from the goal of ensuring that as many people as possible can use it easily.
A report on Kan 11 about lawyers filing class-action lawsuits against businesses whose websites are not accessible to the disabled.
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Web Accessibility: Every person has the right to enjoy equality and access to information and services on the internet. Accessibility grants this right to the entire population, including people with various disabilities.
Making the site accessible allows access to a wider audience, including people with disabilities or special needs. This can lead to increasing the site's potential audience and expanding the market. Accessibility provides people with disabilities the ability to be integrated into the technological environment and be part of society's progress.
Compliance with legal requirements - In most places in the world, there are legal requirements to make websites accessible; this is also true in Israel, where the law sets certain criteria for making websites accessible according to standards established by law.
Certain websites may be exempt from making the site accessible - you can check here on the Ministry of Justice website for the criteria for an exemption from making the site accessible. The law may change from time to time.
According to WCAG criteria, there are three levels of web accessibility - A, AA, and AAA. Each level indicates the success rate at which accessibility is measured, with each level including all previous levels.
The AA web accessibility standard refers to the second level in the hierarchy of web accessibility criteria defined by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) committee. The committee sets metrics and criteria to ensure the accessibility of websites and digital applications.
The AA standard is a common way to ensure more advanced accessibility and provide improved contrast capabilities and more advanced user control.
In addition to accessibility plugins that help us make the site accessible and include many functions such as increasing contrast / highlighting links / magnifying glass / disabling animations and more...
WCAG rules include requirements such as:
Site pages should have headings, subheadings, and body text.
Every image we have on the site has Alt Text; the text behind the scenes explains to users what is seen in the image, and therefore it is required to write descriptions in the Alt Text of the images.
An option is required to control the site via arrow keys, Tab, Ctrl +/-, Enter, and Esc keys. The user must be allowed to control the transition between different areas, links on the site, and the timing of actions occurring on the site (for example: stop, restart, or pause animations).
Color contrast is required between text and background and between buttons and backgrounds so that the text is readable even in low-vision conditions.
It is required to add an accessibility statement to our site explaining the level of accessibility on the site and stating who is responsible for the site's accessibility.
An accessibility statement on the site gives you a 60-day notice before a lawsuit, enough time to fix the deficiencies on the site.
If you do not fix the deficiencies within the 60 days, you will be exposed to a lawsuit.
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