Accessibility Overlay and How Can It Enhance the Lives of People with Disabilities
Accessibility, both physical and digital, is a civil right for everyone in the United States of America. Companies should ensure their websites are accessible to everyone. This task is not a mammoth one, and it is possible with accessibility overlays.
An insight into the accessibility overlay and how does it boost your site?
In the USA, the term accessibility was introduced by Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and Title III of The Americans with Disabilities Act. The former applies to contractors and federal agencies, whereas the latter covers private businesses.
Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act protects people with disabilities from discrimination in all non-physical areas, with the inclusion of the Internet. Due to the above Act, ADA lawsuits against business sites that are inaccessible are on the rise.
Challenges businesses face
An accessibility overlay helps a business to arrest challenges when it comes to some website issues. In the past, companies had to depend upon app plugins and web developers for making their sites accessible. This ordeal was quite expensive as it cost them a lot of money. Sometimes, thousands of dollars. Businesses had to bear the costs of website maintenance as well. They had to incur investments to make their sites ADA compliant, so the whole affair was quite costly.
Innovative solution for all the above issues
This is where accessibility overlays infused with artificial intelligence step in to resolve these problems. People with physical disabilities can customize their experience with site navigation as per their needs. In short, overlays are game-changers in the arena as though people might have the same physical disabilities; their needs are unique and never the same.
Companies must take the onus to understand these different types of disabilities and their changes to cater to them. At the same time, there is no “one solution” to accessibility issues faced by these businesses.
The salient features of accessibility overlays include-
1. Automatic screen reader adjustments like-
Alt attributes
Icons and buttons
State controls
ARIA attributes
Landmarks and roles
Validations and forms
Navigation of automatic keyboards.
2. Design and personal UI adjustments-This feature focus on display and site content. You can get a choice of different profiles for accessibility like-
ADHD-friendly profile- this gives you fewer distractions and better focus.
Cognitive disability profile- It assists you with focusing and reading.
Vision impaired profile- improves the site visuals.
Seizure safe profile – removes flashes and decreases color.
3. Color and contrast for the visually impaired- This feature enhances the background and the foreground of the color contrasts.
4. Live dictionary- Offers instant meaning to users who have cognitive disabilities who might find comprehending specific languages, phrases, or slang hard to understand.
From the above, it is evident that accessibility is crucial now, and businesses should not offer an excuse not to have an accessible site. They must choose a good quality accessibility overlay as an affordable and safe option to boost their site’s performance for everyone, now and in the future as well.
