What is ADA compliance

Rick Maré • October 28, 2022

What is ADA compliance?

The Americans with Disability Act (ADA) was instituted in 1990 in an attempt to prevent discrimination against people with disabilities. This act included a legal requirement for organizations to provide ‘reasonable accomodations’ to those with disabilities. When it was instituted, this centered around provisions such as wheelchair ramps, disabled restrooms, and braille signage. Since the internet has become such a widespread aspect of business, it has been amended and reinterpreted in an effort to ensure web accessibility.


Websites and the ADA

Web accessibility can be defined as the practice of ensuring websites are equally accessible to all, including those with disabilities. Whilst the ADA does not yet explicitly cover online accessibility, it has been interpreted by various courts to do so. Title III requires that all operators of ‘places of public accommodation’ must ensure equal accessibility, and comply with the requirement that ‘no person with a disability be denied service due to absence of auxiliary aids’. However there still remains a gray area with regards to the particular legal requirements for web accessibility, with various courts across the country providing different protections for web users. WCAG 2.0 has been recommended by the Department of Justice, and was on the verge of being implemented in 2018, before being withdrawn.



Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

Published by the Web Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium, these guidelines are perhaps the most widespread and well-defined when it comes to ensuring web accessibility, and have been described as the ‘industry standard’ by a Federal Court. In the EU, Australia, and Canada, these guidelines are a legal requirement for all public sector bodies.


Areas of focus are characterized by the WCAG as including:

  • Perceivable issues - which affect user ability to find/process information, e.g. lack of audio descriptions for visual content
  • Operable issues - that impact user’s ability to navigate and use the features of a website, e.g. inability to navigate website with just a keyboard
  • Understandable issues - regarding user’s ability to understand all the information and navigation aspects of a site, e.g. lack of error messages or navigation directions
  • Robust issues - concerning website ability to adapt to cater to changing needs of users with disabilities, e.g. testing compatibility with screen reader software for image descriptions, ensuring future upgrades are possible



Whilst these guidelines have yet to be formally legislated within the US, it remains best practice to abide by them, both for the sake of users, and to ensure you are well ahead of any legal changes that may be implemented within the future. Below we have prepared a basic ADA compliance checklist to assist you with implementation.


ADA web-compliance checklist

  1. Read all legal documentation regarding web accessibility
  2. All media/maps should have an alt tag
  3. All forms should have descriptive HTML tags
  4. All text content should be structured with heading tags
  5. All PDF files should be readily accessible for direct use
  6. All hyperlinks should have descriptive anchor text
  7. All fonts should be accessible and easily read
  8. Color contrast should follow WCAG guidelines and be suitable for colourblind people
  9. Pages should have skip navigation links
  10. Videos must be subtitled, with transcripts and audio descriptions available
  11. Have an accessibility policy page
  12. Audio files should be accompanied with text captions
  13. HTML tables should contain column headers, row identifiers, cell information
  14. Call to action buttons should have ARIA label and accessible name
  15. All pages should be capable of being navigated via keyboard alone
  16. Include easily located contact info for the purpose of requesting accessibility information
  17. Test web accessibility according to WCAG guidelines, and implement user testing
  18. Automate your website accessibility check to prevent any missing flaws in accessibility that may occur in the future



Accessible design strategies


Readability

Keep sentences short and concise so that they are easy to read and comprehend. Unnecessary repetition isn’t just an issue for those with cognitive or visual impairments, but for getting your message through to your audience at large. Bulleted points, bolded keywords, and appropriate spacing can be used to make your content easily scanned at a glance. Font should be appropriately sized and of a style that is easy to read; sans serif fonts are preferred. Furthermore you should use a limited number of fonts for the sake of consistency. 


These tips don’t just apply to improving accessibility, but improving the user experience for all; nonetheless they should be re-evaluated when working towards improving your site accessibility.


Linking and call to action

Descriptive text and alt text should be used for all links, rather than just ‘click here’, or even a button image, your links should be well described so that they are accessible for screen readers. For call to action buttons, aria-labels are preferred to give screen readers sufficient information.


Videos with audio

Provide captions, alongside a full-text transcript of the video, or even versions of the video with complete text descriptions. Titles and a foreword for what the video content is are also useful. All video content should have options for adjusting volume, pausing, or muting - particularly for auto-play content.


Color usage

Color is useful for indicating areas of interest, links, and keywords. Color alone is not sufficient for many of those with color blindness or other visual impairments. If color coding is used (for instance in a graph), then colors should be labeled or accompanied by a number. Patterns, shapes, or font features (bold, underlined, italics etc) can also be used to communicate significance. Color contrast is of critical importance, a ratio of 3:1 should be used at the minimum.


Overall, by ensuring your website is ADA compliant, you benefit all potential visitors, both those with and without disabilities. For more information on how you can create a WCAG compliant site, check out
this




Share this article

Latest articles

Can AI improve recruitment SEO performance? Purple and blue SEO graphic with gears and search icon
By Nicole Clarke August 3, 2026
Understand how AI impacts recruitment SEO performance and whether it can improve rankings, visibility, and candidate traffic.
Can AI improve recruitment SEO performance? Purple and blue SEO graphic with gears and search icon
By Nicole Clarke August 3, 2026
Understand how AI impacts recruitment SEO performance and whether it can improve rankings, visibility, and candidate traffic.
recruitment website
By Nicole Clarke July 30, 2026
See how a recruitment widgets library helps staffing leaders speed workflows, improve candidate engagement, and optimize hiring with better data insights.
recruitment website
By Nicole Clarke July 30, 2026
Learn how to evaluate platforms for staffing and career sites, and choose a recruitment website CMS that supports automation, analytics, and growth.
recruitment website
By Nicole Clarke July 30, 2026
Turn Hidden Clicks Into Revenue-Ready Talent Pipelines Recruitment website analytics can quietly make or break your revenue. When your site is busy, the numbers in your dashboards are not just charts; they are early signs of future placements, retainers, and lost deals you never even knew were on the table. As many agencies head into Q3 planning, the focus usually sits on business development and candidate acquisition. That matters, but there is a silent killer running in the background: leaks in your digital funnel. Small issues like high exit rates on job pages, low mobile conversions, or poor internal search results slowly remove real money from your pipeline. Late July is one of the best times to face this. The second half of the year is warming up, hiring demand picks up, and your consultants are building plans for the busy Q3 and Q4 cycles. Fixing digital leaks now means the extra candidates and better-nurtured clients you need will already be flowing when the rush hits. When recruitment website analytics are read in context and tied to CRM or ATS and to marketing data, they stop being vanity metrics. They start showing you precise revenue gaps and specific opportunities. An integrated recruitment-focused website-and-marketing platform turns that data into clear, commercial actions your team can actually use. Where Your Digital Candidate Journey Quietly Falls Apart Your website is not just a brochure. It is a working machine that guides candidates from first touch to application and then back again for future roles. When we break it down, the digital candidate path usually looks like this: SEO visibility and first visit On-site job search or job category browsing Viewing an individual job Starting an application Completing the application Follow-up engagement and nurture At any of these steps, revenue can leak out. A few common analytics red flags include: High bounce on key job category or sector pages Abandoned job searches with no clicks on results Repeated searches without any applications Heavy drop-off between the Apply Now click and completed application Each red flag turns into real money lost. If candidates stop at the job view stage, your shortlists are weaker. If your application completion rate dips, your time to fill slows. If your job search is clunky, your team has less talent to pitch to clients when a hot brief lands. Late summer brings different user habits too. People are outside more, working from cafes, or scrolling on phones while traveling. You may see: More mobile browsing compared to desktop Shorter, more frequent visits outside typical office hours More passive candidates checking roles but not ready to commit Tracking device performance, time of day, and location patterns helps you see where this seasonal behavior is helping or hurting your pipeline. A recruitment-specific platform can surface these bottlenecks automatically and benchmark performance across roles, verticals, and markets, so your consultants know where to focus their effort. Using Recruitment Website Analytics to Uncover Revenue Leaks To plug revenue leaks, we need to look past surface stats like page views or overall bounce rate. The real power sits in recruitment website analytics that tie directly to outcomes. Some of the smarter metrics to watch are: Application-to-interview rate by source Completed applications by device type Job category and sector performance Job board traffic compared to organic traffic and referrals These metrics uncover hidden revenue gaps such as: High-traffic but low-apply roles, hinting at poor messaging or UX friction Jobs with strong interest (views and time on page) but weak conversions, which may signal broken forms, confusing calls to action, or unclear requirements Underperforming high-margin niches like senior leadership or specialist roles, where even a small conversion lift can grow fee revenue The real magic happens when website analytics connect with CRM or ATS data. Then you can see which channels create candidates who actually become: Shortlisted talent Placed candidates Repeated placements or long-term client revenue You might find that mobile users are far less likely to complete an application compared to desktop visitors, or that a specific campaign landing page drives lots of views but hardly any interviews. When your analytics, content, and channel data all sit in one recruitment-first view, these revenue gaps stop hiding in separate systems. Turning Insights Into Fast, Measurable Revenue Wins Once you spot the leaks, the next step is to act in a way that links clearly to revenue. Not every issue is equal. You will want to rank fixes by their commercial impact, such as: High-fee roles where one extra placement really moves the needle Recurring client needs that keep coming back month after month Strategic growth sectors where you want to own the market From there, some high-impact moves often deliver quick wins: Streamline applications with shorter forms or progressive profiling, especially on mobile Improve job page UX with clear salary bands where possible, benefits, FAQs, location info, and simple ways to contact the recruiter Try different calls to action for passive candidates, like Quick Apply, Join Talent Pool, or Book a Call Continuous experimentation is key here. Set up simple A/B tests around: Job titles and headlines Page layouts and content order Different CTAs or button wording Then track uplift in: Completed applications Interviews scheduled Placements by channel or job type A tight feedback loop helps this process move faster. Weekly reviews that combine recruitment website analytics with what consultants are hearing on the phone or in meetings keep your digital improvements grounded in real behavior. When you start these experiments in late July and early August, you have a couple of months to learn, adjust, and push your best-performing versions into the heavier autumn hiring surge. Building a Revenue-First Analytics Ecosystem with Shazamme This is where we focus a lot of our work at Shazamme. We are a recruitment and staffing website and marketing platform built to connect the dots between your digital activity and your actual billings. Our platform pulls together: Recruitment website analytics and on-site behavior SEO performance and content insights Marketing automation activity and email engagement ATS or CRM outcomes like interviews, offers, and placements With all of this in one place, you can map the full path from first click on a keyword, job ad, or campaign, through to a final placement. That view supports stronger ROI conversations with clients and gives you better data for decisions about retainers, exclusive partnerships, and niche focus. Automation then helps close the gaps you uncover. For example, you can: Trigger nurture journeys for candidates who started but did not finish an application Alert consultants when high-value job pages underperform or when demand surges in certain skill sets Surface hot talent pools based on real behavior that consultants can use in proactive business development Agencies that treat recruitment website analytics as a revenue tool, not a reporting chore, gain a clear edge. They move faster into high-value niches, spend smarter on channels that actually convert, and build stronger stories for clients about where talent is coming from and how it moves through the funnel. At Shazamme, our goal is to turn the hidden clicks across your recruitment website into ready-to-place talent pipelines, so your Q3 and Q4 numbers reflect the real potential of the traffic you are already generating. Turn Your Recruitment Data Into Actionable Growth If you are ready to understand what is really working on your careers site, we can help you harness recruitment website analytics to improve candidate attraction and conversion. At Shazamme, we work with you to surface the insights that matter so you can make faster, smarter decisions. Talk with our team to review your current performance and map out practical next steps. To get started, simply contact us and we will guide you through the process.
Recruitment Website CMS
By Nicole Clarke July 30, 2026
Learn how to spot and fix recruitment website CMS pitfalls that slow performance, hurt SEO, and reduce candidate conversions for staffing teams.
By Nicole Clarke July 27, 2026
Learn where recruitment agencies should post in 2026, what content performs best on each platform, and the best times to publish to attract clients, candidates, and long-term website traffic.
Show More