Sitefinity ADA Compliance and WCAG Optimization

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Building an Accessible Website

The internet has dramatically widened the scope of eCommerce and communication. People now have access to specific products and services that they didn’t before. Organizations and companies have a much larger audience and customer base than would have been possible before the internet. This increased reach has led to a steady flow of information, products, and services.

The role of marketing and CMS, too, has become essential with the growth of organizations. Without them, businesses cannot generate and convert leads at their full potential. All companies prioritize accessibility and positive experiences for their users. The internet increased accessibility, with most things just being a few clicks away. However, even then, some websites and applications ignored an important part of society that required extra consideration: the disabled.

Sitefinity ADA Compliance and WCAG Optimization

As far as content management systems (CMS) go, Progress Sitefinity pretty much has it all. Content creators, administrators, and marketers can use this eCommerce solution to create and edit content for websites. CMS streamlines the task of content management. This allows businesses to manage their online needs without involving developers or IT at every stage. Anyone can use the simple yet efficient Sitefinity drag-and-drop interface. Combined with the multitude of features and competitive service, Sitefinity is one of the best CMS available on the market.

Content management systems like Sitefinity are a core part of virtual marketing and business growth. Therefore, they have evolved to become more holistic and meet the needs of the online marketplace. One of these needs is web accessibility, which refers to making websites usable for and accessible to people of all abilities and disabilities.

With many guidelines and regulations now in place, companies have begun to ensure that their web accessibility meets and surpasses standards to remain competitive and compliant. Additionally, ADA and WCAG compliance is necessary to avoid costly lawsuits. Progress has made sure that Sitefinity website accessibility is up to the par by promising the strictest compliance with the ADA and the WCAG. Sitefinity website accessibility is achieved by keeping colors, designs, and website interactivity into account.

Compliance and regulations

ADA and WCAG Compliance

The American Disabilities Act (ADA) and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are a set of regulations that aim to protect disabled people’s interests online. These guidelines make sure web content stays accessible to people with disabilities. These disabilities include:

  • Vision disabilities
  • Hearing disabilities
  • Thinking and learning disabilities (e.g., epilepsy, ADHD, dyslexia)
  • Movement disabilities (e.g., arthritis)
  • Temporary disabilities (e.g., environmental noise, injury).

Abiding by ADA and WCAG regulations is not only essential to have premium customer service and maximum reach, but to stay on the right side of the law

Another thing to consider is assistive devices that aid disabled people. They use this technology to accommodate themselves in their virtual life. These devices are compatible with a variety of software and hardware. Examples of assistive devices are screen readers (to read out displayed content), screen magnifiers, and Braille displays (for Braille users), among others. Companies need to make their websites compatible with assistive devices so that disabled people have no problem navigating them.

Sitefinity ADA compliance and Sitefinity WCAG compliance take this all into consideration. Sitefinity website accessibility is according to the 12 rules of WCAG 2.0. WCAG 2.0 lays out the basics of making web content more accessible under four principles:

  • Perceivable: users’ brains can perceive web content regardless of the senses they can or cannot use
  • Operable: users can access and navigate web content, no matter what device they are using
  • Understandable: users can easily understand web content i.e., language is simple and readers can follow along with it
  • Robust: users can access web content, no matter what browser or operating system they are using

People with disabilities are most concerned with perceivable and understandable principles, which ensure that they are not disadvantaged on the internet.

The Optimizing your Website for Accessibility

Sitefinity Native Accessibility

Progress has incorporated many resources into Sitefinity to optimize it, keeping ADA and WCAG in mind. Accessibility of a website largely depends on the feature implementation. Developers can include relevant styling and scripts to make Sitefinity users’ website compliant to guidelines. Sitefinity ADA compliance and Sitefinity WCAG compliance involves meeting the requirements set above: the platform needs to create websites that are perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.

Sitefinity creates operable and robust websites because it is a Microsoft based .NET software. Therefore, it is compatible with the majority of operating systems and browsers. The CMS is easy to use and has many features and modules that give users free rein with designing, editing, and managing their website content. It is the responsibility of users to comply with ADA and WCAG guidelines when creating their websites. For example, content creators need to ensure the images they upload have alternative text, and developers need to include accessibility markup/code to make the content compatible with assistive devices, and so on.

Sitefinity’s newest versions offer Bootstrap 4, the popular CSS framework, package with the CMS. This is significant as Bootstrap 4 helps with Sitefinity website accessibility. It assists in the creation of highly accessible, relevant, and responsive websites. Additionally, Bootstrap 4 can create mobile-first websites that fulfill the robust criteria in WCAG 2.0. Moreover, Sitefinity CMS updates have shifted to an MVC-first platform, which has improved the user experience. MVC developers have complete control over the code/markup. Therefore, they can easily make websites more accessible and compliant with regulations.

How can we help

Clarity Ventures: Sitefinity Experts

The marker of a good product or service is that it caters to groups besides the majority. Disabled people are often overlooked while companies roll out virtual updates or modify their services. However, Sitefinity ADA compliance and Sitefinity WCAG compliance guarantees that the disabled will never be at a disadvantage while using the Sitefinity CMS platform. The variety of features and tweaks to the software improve all non-disabled and disabled users’ user experience. This makes Sitefinity the best choice for anyone looking to have a rich and wholesome content management system experience online.

With the decision made to provide your end-users the most optimal experience you will need to consider a development company to work with. Not matter the CMS you need compliance for—Sitefinity, DNN, or WordPress ADA compliance—Clarity is an excellent choice, having successfully launched over 1300 websites and projects. Feel free to reach out to us to discuss the needs and requirements of your project today!

Clarity Sitefinity CMS Experts

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