One of the first things to take into consideration when creating your credit union website is web accessibility. Credit unions just like any other financial institution need to provide easier and equal access to everyone especially to people with disabilities. In other words, all credit union websites need to be ADA compliant, which means they have to follow the guidelines stipulated by the Americans with Disabilities Act. Failure to comply with this act may result in various fines, penalties, or even lawsuits.
Even if you are aware of this act and you did your best to provide digital access to your customers, it may be possible that you haven’t covered all aspects of the ADA implementation. So here is a checklist that can help you understand if your credit union website is ADA compliant.
Limit PDF Usage
It may seem easier to present some of your content in PDF documents on your credit union website, however, keep in mind that they may not be accessible to everyone. For instance, people with impaired sight or similar disabilities usually use screen reader technology that allows them to use a computer through audio or touch. These screen readers can’t download PDF files from websites which means that these people wouldn’t be able to access them. Therefore, to be ADA compliant provide the information through HTML pages instead of uploading PDF or similar files to your credit union website.
Add alt text to pictures
Closely related to the first point of our ADA compliance checklist is thinking about the pictures or images you have on your credit union website. Keep in mind that all types of assistive technology that people with disabilities use aren’t designed for reading pictures. The only way that screen readers can read the picture is if it contains alt text. In that way, this program will understand the purpose of the picture and convey the message to the user.
Caption All Video and Audio Content
Video content is interactive and dynamic in its essence. Many websites especially in the last few years incorporated video in their design. Be descriptive in your video content and think about the customers who can’t watch it and try to understand your message only through the audio content. On the other hand, people with impaired hearing can only read your content, so make sure to transcript and caption all video and audio content on your credit union website. Consider this for any type of content and describe the purpose of each element through hyperlinks, web page titles, and anchor texts.
Include Keyboard Navigation
In the process of making everything on your credit union website accessible to all your visitors make sure to include easy keyboard navigation which would be compatible with the assistive technology. Adding visual and hover states is of prime importance to make every element of your credit union website accessible.
Remove flickering screen effects
There are some aspects of the website design that may seem appealing at first glance but aren’t very practical for website visitors. Not only will content that blinks or flickers can be distracting or annoying, but it can cause serious problems to people with impaired sight or similar disabilities. If you would have to include such content at least provide the option for the user to stop or pause this type of feature.
Extend the time limit for filling out forms
Another accessibility feature to add to the ADA compliance checklist is ensuring that users can complete forms easily. Many people have problems or fail to complete a form due to the short time that is given before the session expires. The easy solution here is to extend the time limit for the users when filling out different forms on your credit union website. Additionally, don’t forget to properly label each section and form field so that it’s very clear for all users.
Use Contrasting Colors
To support the assistive technology tools it’s also critical to think about the colors on your website and how people with visual impairments can read them. Above all, the website colors need to provide contrast with each other and it’s very important to correctly tag the colors in the HTML code thus allowing the screen readers to adjust them for the users.
Conduct ADA Compliance Audit Regularly
Finally, the item with the highest priority on your checklist should always be to regularly run an ADA compliance audit. Make this a quarterly task and ask the question – is your credit union website ADA compliant? Often when changing the design or adding additional features to your website you may overlook some of these web accessibility aspects and be at risk of getting fines or penalties. Or even worse you can lose some of your customers who will feel left out or unable to access their credit union accounts.
