What if we told you your website was excluding a significant portion of the population from engaging with it without you even knowing? Well, for seniors (who make up around 15% of America’s population) and people with disabilities, not making your website ADA-compliant does that.

But it’s not as simple as looking up the guidelines and meeting them: in fact, there’s no formal set of things you have to do for your website. So how do you know when you’ve achieved ADA compliance?

Well, you’ve come to the right place. We’re here to give you all the tips you need to make your website meet ADA standards!

1. Cut Down on the Flashing Lights

One of the first steps you can take to make your website senior-friendly is to ditch any graphics that flash brightly or have quick color contrast. This is because these sensations can trigger someone who has epilepsy to go into a seizure.

Opt instead for slower-moving or stationary graphics with less direct color contrast. With that said though, you’ll want to make sure you still have some color contrast, or you risk alienating colorblind viewers.

2. Aid Those With Vision Problems

As people get older, one of the things they often lose is their eyesight or at least the same level of eyesight they had before. You can accommodate for this by making sure everything on your site is written in a font that is uncluttered and easy to read.

Another tip is to use spacing well. Try to use bullet-point lists and have short paragraphs instead of posting long blocks of text that the reader will get lost in.

You can also tag all of your images with alt and title tags to make it more clear to a site-goer what you are trying to relate the image to. And as a bonus, this practice will even boost your SEO ranking and get your site in front of more people!

3. No Mouse? No Problem

Another key step to aid senior living regarding your website is making sure that people can navigate your site without using a mouse. After all, conditions like arthritis or Parkinson’s disease can make it difficult to grip a mouse and move it properly.  So, make sure your site responds to simple keyboard commands (like a single button to scroll up and one to scroll down) to make navigation a breeze for everyone.

4. ADA Standards Mean Videos for All

Finally, you’ll want to take steps to make sure everyone can enjoy any videos you put on your site. Adding closed captioning is a great way to do this, as well as allowing videos to start with a button push rather than a click.

ADA Compliance? In the Bag

And there you have it! Now that you have these tips to make your website meet ADA standards, you won’t have to worry about alienating a large chunk of your audience! And if you want to learn more about making your website ADA-compliant, check out some of the other posts on our blog!

For further information on ADA Compliance and a tool that will automatically make your site 96% compliant visit ADAEnabled