Ever perform ADA compliance standards on a client site?

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

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  Michael Martinez: I can only think of one situation where this came up. The developers usually take responsibility for ADA compliance, in my experience. So if we don`t detect a problem in an audit or a client doesn`t raise the issue we don`t run into any conflicts. The one conflict I can think of occurred over a decade ago. I don`t remember the details and I doubt that would be relevant today anyway.
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  JL Faverio: I have one hospital client and one law firm client inquiring about it. I`m having a difficult time finding an official `tool` or further guidence that`s not in legal-speak.
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  JL Faverio: Also, ada.gov is in fact not ADA complient.
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  Gina Fiedel: Kim Krause Berg can help. She`s amazing with this stuff.
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  JL Faverio: Gina Fiedel thank you, I`ll bug her right now lol.
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  Gina Fiedel: JL Faverio Perfect! She may be off for the holiday, but she`s ultra responsive.
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  Kim Krause Berg: I`m here :)
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  Kim Krause Berg: Ever perform ADA compliance standards on a client site?
  
  Did it conflict with any SEO practices?
  
  Since there`s so many different levels of ADA compliance, how do you know which issues to focus on and which to ignore?
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  Kim Krause Berg: Yes, no and better call me :)
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  Kim Krause Berg: Things change quickly so some of this is "old". However, the links I put at the bottom of this article are to tools and people to get you going. Accessibility should be built into the culture of a company and skilled people ready to implement the code. There is a serious lack of those trained people. Accessibility agencies are expensive, which is maddening because they are so badly needed. The work of testing is long and detail oriented. Strive for meeting WCAG2.1 AA for any site except .gov and .edu ones. https://creativevisionwebconsulting.com/.../accessibilit.../
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  JL Faverio: Kim Krause Berg awesome I`ll check this out right now. Thanks!
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  Ryan Jones: It shouldn`t conflict with SEO if done right, however there are LOTS Of guidelines out there that DO conflict with SEO. For example, if you don`t have an H1 tag on your site, many accessibility guidelines recommend adding a hidden H1 tag for screen readers. That`s an SEO issue.
  
  I`ve seen other issues where I had a product image with an alt attribute of "green sprockets" and the word "green sprockets" right below it. The accessibility expert suggested we remove the alt attribute because for screen readers it would say "green sprockets green sprockets" - but obviously we want that for SEO.
  
  So in general while they`re mostly good, there are some edge cases that alll depend on the design of your site.
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  Kim Krause Berg: Yeah...not really buying the solutions there. ARIA provides the directions when added properly within the HTML (and often in place of), with span and div`s that provide the necessary information required for assistive tech. The alt doesn`t need to be identical to the text next to it. The alt can be descriptive and also have an action word, like "get information on green sprockets". I don`t know many dev`s who know SEO and accessibility. I`m constantly training myself.
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  Ryan Jones: and therein lies the problem. Most of the time it`s workarounds for accessibility because the site isn`t coded right.
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  Kim Krause Berg: Absolutely! I live and breathe this stuff. The more recent lightbulb moment was realizing that I need to return to 1995 when I hand coded everything. The cut and paste, WYSIWYG way has contributed to the mess. For myself, I need to go back to the future :)
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  JL Faverio: Kim Krause Berg here you go https://www.oreillyauto.com/flux-capacitor