ADA / WCAG 2.0 Compliance

Website Accessibility is a relatively recent focus shift in the web design and development industry. There is a set of coding standards called the Website Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0) that creators of adaptive technologies and web developers have established to make sure web users with various disabilities can browse and interact with websites seamlessly.

WCAG 2.0 has three levels of conformance: A, AA, and AAA. A is easiest rank for websites to achieve, while AAA requires thinking about accessibility from the ground-up. We have found that AA is a great spot to aim for an upgrade, and encourage our clients to aim for AAA when rebuilding the website from scratch.

Ultimately, while compliance is not yet universal, we encourage our clients to make the extra investment in accessibility for a couple of reasons: 1) It opens the doors of your business to the millions who already use assistive technology, and 2) It readies your business for the larger wave of potential customers aging into accessible technologies.

We can work with you to audit, upgrade, and certify your current website, or build a new website. We also offer consulting for unique or one-off projects. We own and operate a specialty agency that focuses exclusively on website accessibility. Visit Accessible Web to learn more.

Some examples of Adaptive Technologies we're developing for:

Vision impaired users will often use screen readers to browse a website's content.
Low vision users may require that text can be zoomed up or be transformed to be higher contrast.
A user that cannot use a mouse can use the tab button to move through the links on a website and the enter key to click on a link.
A hearing impaired user will uses closed-captioning when watching videos online.

The Vermont Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports Project, housed at UVM’s Center on Disability and Community Inclusion, focuses on supporting all students, including those with disabilities, to be fully included in schools so they can achieve academic and social success. Kudos to Bytes.co for creating a website for us that upholds our goals to make our content accessible to all.

Sherry Schoenberg

Vermont PBIS