• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Watermarke Digital

Watermarke Digital

  • Home
  • About
  • Industries
  • Services
  • Insights
  • Contact

Hotel Website ADA Compliance in the Spotlight

Watermarke / Hotel Marketing / Hotel Website ADA Compliance in the Spotlight

Hotel website ADA compliance is coming under scrutiny. Which means hotels need to stay hyper-aware of how their website appears to guests with disabilities.

What does ADA (American Disability Act) compliance mean for hotels? It’s a set of rules a hotel has to follow, both at their property and online, to ensure that they’re offering services for people with disabilities. Anything that comes across as discriminatory or makes it hard for people with disabilities to access what they need at a hotel can cost thousands of dollars in fees and lawsuits.

So, how do you make sure your hotel website ADA compliance meets all the requirements? Here are a few things you should take a look at.

Online Reservations

Being able to make reservations for accessible rooms is paramount in ensuring that your website is under ADA compliance. Viewers need to be able to make reservations for those rooms during the same hours and in the same manner (meaning via any online reservation tool you have) as anyone else.

Property Descriptions

The property features you offer your disabled guests need to be easy to find and viewable on your website. Potential guests need to know if your rooms and property will meet their needs and will allow them to get around easily.

For example, you likely have pathways, ramps, lifts, and accessible parking, but do you have braille signage and A/V equipment for those that are vision and hearing impaired? What about the placement of furniture and light fixtures? If yes, you need to clearly describe these features on your site.

This is an area where a lot of hotel websites misstep with ADA compliance, so pay careful attention to what you put on your website.

Specific Website Features

According to the Website Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which measures the worldwide technical standard, your hotel website ADA compliance should include:

  • Alternatives for non-text content and time-based media
  • Be visually easy to see and navigate
  • Allow for keyboard functionality and sufficient time for users to read content
  • Designed in a way that is not harmful to those that have seizures
  • The text should be simplified and easily readable
  • Compatibility with web assistances

This is just the beginning when it comes to hotel website ADA compliance. There are 12 guidelines outlined on WCAG, and hotels need to be compliant with them at all times.

Hoteliers have a million things to think about daily. It’s easy to understand how website compliance can fall to the backburner. But, it’s one of the more essential aspects of your website that you need to think about, especially considering the costs associated with non-compliant sites.

One easy way to make sure you’re compliant is hiring an agency that can guide you in the right direction. It will ensure you’ve done all you can to meet the needs of guests with disabilities.

 

Category iconHotel Marketing Tag iconada compliance,  hotel website design,  websites

Further Insights

person taking photo
Hotel Website Hero Images are Getting Too Generic – Let’s Fix That
June 3, 2020
Close up of smartphone screen with word design on it
Inspiration Abounds – Check Out These Hotel Website Design Ideas
December 25, 2019
hotel-website-design
A Hotel Website Design Should Follow These Best Practices
December 4, 2019

Are You Ready for Sustainable Growth?

Reach out to us to talk about next steps, or to learn what we can do for you.

Get in Touch →

Footer

Get In Touch

We are an organic-first, analytics-obsessed, tech-savvy digital marketing firm. We work closely with our clients as consultants to solve business problems and seize opportunities.

1-888-475-4085

info@watermarkedigital.com

Industries

  • Hotels
  • Ecommerce
  • Healthcare
  • Startups

Insights

  • Digital Marketing
  • Organic SEO
  • Content Marketing
  • Analytics
  • Martech

Watermarke Digital

Get access to our regular insights, delivered right to your inbox.

Email Subscribe

Copyright © Watermarke Digital. All rights reserved.

Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Trademarks | Copyright | Disclaimer
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.AcceptReject Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT