How to Make Your Elementor Website Accessible

Elementor claims that people are leading the way in helping them understand the importance of and giving them the information they need to improve their accessibility efforts.

Elementor is one of the more popular platforms for building websites and landing pages, but does this mean you will be ADA compliant?

In this article, we will have an in-depth discussion on ADA compliance with Elementor.

What is ADA Compliance?

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a law that protects people with disabilities and their needs. It requires employers and business owners to provide reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities to prevent discrimination.

The purpose of the law is to give everyone the same rights and opportunities.

Additionally, it guarantees equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities in federal and state government services, employment, transportation, and telecommunications.

While websites aren’t explicitly included in the ADA, they’re considered places of public accommodation and are thus subject to the law. Various courts around America have enforced this, requiring websites to be ADA compliant.

Because there are no clear guidelines for website ADA compliance, websites adhere to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2.

About Elementor

Elementor is a free plugin and a platform that makes it easier to build responsive websites. It mimics popular website builders like Wix and Squarespace by providing a simple drag-and-drop interface.

This platform allows you to choose whether you want a ready-made template or if you want to create your feature-rich site with no coding skills.

There is no limit to what you can do with your new site or pages, and you don’t have to stick with the features that come with your existing WordPress theme. What’s more, you can view the changes and additions you make on your site – no need to save your page as a draft first.

Elementor is also compatible with all WordPress themes, so you can keep it as long as you have WordPress Version 5.0 or higher.

Accessibility on Elementor

Even though accessibility has long been an important consideration in website design, it hasn’t always been at the top of Elementor’s to-do list.

Nonetheless, the platform now provides tools and plugins to achieve website accessibility.

In line with this, they have improved some of their web accessibility design tools for people with visual impairments. However, there are still issues with some Elementor site builders, plugins, and problematic areas of code.

With Elementor, you can easily create eye-catching layouts and pages – plus, it works with almost all WordPress themes.

There are also features on Elementor that are not accessible to other users. Let’s take a closer look at Elementor’s features.

Font Family and Size

It’s possible to change the font of individual page elements on any Elementor-designed site. You can pre-configure fonts and sizes in your theme’s settings to be used across the site. It is well known that fonts with certain level of legibility, including good height, width, and thickness are more accessible than others.

Additionally, it’s possible that some design elements, such as smaller font sizes, need to be increased to make them easier to read. If a user wants fonts displayed larger than other individuals, the REM setting will allow fonts to scale proportionately.

Color and Contrast

When it comes to readability, it’s not only the font color that matters. If you want to improve your Elementor accessibility, ensure that the opacity is set to 100%. Also, use the Backdrop Overlay widget to darken the background to make your text stand out even more.

ALT Attributes

With screen readers, people with visual impairments must be able to visit your website by putting ALT attributes on all your images (sometimes called ALT tags). To do this, go to the WordPress Media Library in the WordPress Dashboard or directly in an Elementor Widget.

You can enter ALT attributes for your image by clicking on it in the section’s Style tab (as well as an image title, caption, and more). Visually-challenged people who use screen readers can benefit from accurate and sufficiently descriptive alt characteristics.

ARIA-Labels

ARIA-labels are another way to make your Elementor-designed page more accessible to visually impaired users. The ARIA label adds context to the various UI components, such as button by including code that explains what the button does.

You might add the “aria-label|ABC Company’s subscription programs” instruction, for example, to a “Read More” button that directs users to a subscription website.

Forms

Use the same processes for scaling fonts using REM size and adjusting color and contrast for readability. It can help to ensure that all forms on your site are as accessible as the primary copy, hero images, and so on.

Given that many visually impaired visitors will navigate the site using a keyboard (rather than a mouse or trackpad), it’s also a good idea to ensure that they can navigate from fields using the “tab” key. By default, Elementor Pro’s Form Widget handles this situation.

Call to Action Widget

This problem will not convince you that a widget is always the optimal markup. While this would be appropriate for a decorative image, an image in a Call to Action widget may provide critical information. In that scenario, using a <img> tag would be preferable, with the alt property set to the image’s meaning.

By default, the image has a zoom-in hover effect. This factor may be somewhat distracting for someone who has cognitive disabilities. Therefore it is recommended that you disable it.

Icon Box Accessibility

The icons have a pulse motion effect applied to them; it may be annoying for some users. However, you can disable these icons. Additionally, the color contrast between the contact information and the background is insufficient.

Contact Form Accessibility

Although form labels are appropriately paired with their respective form controls, they are concealed by the elementor-screen-only class for sighted users. It would be preferable if the labels were made publicly available.

Image Carousel Accessibility

The images in the carousel advance automatically every three seconds. There is no mechanism for pausing, stopping, or hiding them. Additionally, the filename is used as the alt text for each image. In this case, it should be the brand’s name.

Accordion

Both an Accordion and a Toggle widget are available in Elementor, which displays and hides content. The distinction is that you can open many toggles concurrently, whereas you can only open one accordion-item concurrently.

How To Make Your Elementor Websites ADA Compliant?

Aside from the features that Elementor offers, here are the methods that you can use for ADA-compliance purposes.

Perform an ADA Compliance Audit

You can conduct an ADA compliance audit, also referred to as a web accessibility audit. This step can be included as part of a digital audit or as a stand-alone item. The main goal is to create an accessible Elementor website that follows all rules and provides a positive user experience.

Manual ADA website audits are possible, but they are time-consuming, difficult, and prone to error if undertaken by an unqualified individual.

Get ADA Compliance Software

The ADA established a legal responsibility for businesses to make their websites accessible to disabled people. ADA compliance software is a critical tool in achieving this goal, as it assists you in identifying and prioritizing issues you need to repair.

These tools will assist you in making your site more accessible and help you adhere to the ADA compliance guidelines.

Get Plugins and Widgets

Enhance the accessibility of your Elementor website quickly and easily by adding the right plugins and widgets. These tools work flawlessly out of the box on any Elementor website.

One of the best solutions for this situation is UserWay. The accessibility widget from UserWay quickly assists in shoring up any weak places and accessibility barriers on your Elementor site.

It works flawlessly with both purchased, prefabricated, and custom templates and designs you create.

Top Recommended Web Accessibility Tools

Summary

ADA lawsuits have increased over the last few years. In line with this, big corporations and companies bring in millions of dollars every day to battle a lawsuit.

For this reason, it is surprising that there are still platforms that make accessibility a secondary consideration.

Remember, we should all responsibly conduct our business and ensure that our online platforms are easily accessible.

You can check the status of your site with an audit on Accessibility Checker

If you find this Elementor Accessibility article helpful, check out our other website compliance posts for your guidance:

• Best ADA Compliance Software To Help You Get Started With Website Accessibility
• Bureau of Internet Accessibility (BoIA) Review: Features, Pricing, And More