Building and establishing a website these days aren’t as easy as many of us might expect. Sure, it’s possible to get a site up and running quickly. Web hosting packages are quite cheap. Often, they even include essential inclusions like domain registration, ample hosting storage and bandwidth, and even SSL certificates. Most web hosts even provide builders that allow users to create good-looking sites using drag-and-drop interfaces.

如今，建立和建立网站并不像我们许多人所期望的那样容易。 当然，有可能使站点快速启动并运行。 Web托管程序包非常便宜。 通常，它们甚至包括必不可少的内容，例如域注册，充足的托管存储和带宽，甚至SSL证书。 大多数网络主机甚至提供了允许用户使用拖放界面创建美观网站的构建器。

However, the landscape of the internet isn’t quite as forgiving for site owners. The lower barriers to site building means that others can also create their own with ease. Competition can be fierce. Site owners have to work hard to deliver unique content and real value to win their audiences and keep them coming back. Even cybersecurity is of great concern as hackers look to constantly prey on unsecure websites.

但是，对于网站所有者而言，互联网的前景并不宽容。 较低的网站建设障碍意味着其他人也可以轻松创建自己的网站。 竞争可能很激烈。 网站所有者必须努力提供独特的内容和真正的价值，以赢得他们的观众并保持他们的回头客。 由于黑客希望不断地掠夺不安全的网站，甚至网络安全也受到极大关注。

If these weren’t enough, a new trend that many site owners now worry about is the rising threat of web accessibility lawsuits. In 2018, the Unites States Department of Justice (DOJ) affirmed that websites are considered places of public accommodation and must therefore be made accessible to people with disabilities as provided by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

如果这些还不够，那么许多网站所有者现在担心的新趋势就是网络可访问性诉讼的威胁不断增加。 2018年，美国司法部（DOJ）确认网站被视为公共住宿场所，因此必须根据《美国残疾人法案》（ADA）的规定使残疾人能够访问网站。

This fueled parties to use the law to force websites to improve their accessibility. Last year, there were more than 11,000 ADA lawsuits filed in federal court on the grounds of accessibility of public accommodations. A study of the top one million home pages revealed that 98.1 percent had detectable accessibility failures and may therefore be subject to suit.

这促使当事方使用法律强迫网站改善其可访问性。 去年，由于可使用公共场所，在联邦法院提起了超过11,000例 ADA诉讼。 对前一百万个首页的研究表明， 98.1％的可访问性失败，因此可能会受到起诉。

Essentially, the push for wider web accessibility is a good thing. As a site owner, one should allow everyone to enjoy what one offers—including people with disabilities. But considering how some people can be litigious, it may be prudent for you to work on web accessibility immediately. Otherwise, you might be dealing with a costly lawsuit.

本质上，推动更广泛的Web访问性是一件好事。 作为站点所有者，应该允许所有人（包括残疾人士）享受所提供的东西。 但是考虑到某些人可能会提起诉讼，您应该立即进行网络可访问性方面的工作。 否则，您可能要面对昂贵的诉讼。

免费辅助功能插件问题 (The Issue with Free Accessibility Plugins)

It’s easy to think that there should be some free solutions out there that instantly solve this problem. Various powerful web development tools are available for free. Open source content management systems (CMS) like WordPress and Joomla can be freely downloaded installed on a webhost with just a few clicks. These CMS even have entire libraries of free plugins and themes that extend their capabilities. Surely there must be solutions that solve the accessibility issue.

容易想到应该有一些免费的解决方案可以立即解决此问题。 免费提供各种强大的Web开发工具。 只需单击几下，即可免费下载WordPress和Joomla等开源内容管理系统（CMS），并将其安装在Web主机上。 这些CMS甚至具有完整的免费插件库和主题库，可扩展其功能。 当然，必须有解决可访问性问题的解决方案。

Well, there are several such tools. They usually come in the form of plugins, widgets, and toolbars, and can be readily integrated to popular CMS. These plugins add certain functionalities to websites such as features that allow users to change the font type, font size, and text and background colors to suit the users’ needs. Some even allow users to enlarge the cursor or highlight links. These features can be helpful for people with visual impairments. For example, people with certain types of color blindness can benefit from viewing websites with text that clearly contrasts to its background.

好吧，有几种这样的工具。 它们通常以插件，小部件和工具栏的形式出现，并且可以很容易地集成到流行的CMS中。 这些插件向网站添加了某些功能，例如允许用户更改字体类型，字体大小以及文本和背景颜色以适合用户需求的功能。 有些甚至允许用户放大光标或突出显示链接。 这些功能对视力障碍的人可能会有帮助。 例如，某些类型色盲的人可以从查看与背景明显相反的文本的网站中受益。

Unfortunately, these functionalities cover only a fraction of what’s actually needed for sites to be considered compliant. The DOJ points at the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and its Level AA success criteria as reference for what sites have to achieve. The WCAG includes preparing content so that it can be properly interpreted by screen readers and structuring the site for navigability.

不幸的是，这些功能仅涵盖了被视为合规的站点实际所需的一小部分。 DOJ指出了Web内容可访问性指南 （WCAG）及其AA级成功标准，作为必须实现哪些网站的参考。 WCAG包括准备内容，以便屏幕阅读器可以正确解释内容，并为可导航性构建网站。

These plugins do not implement such changes to web content and site structures. So, even if you use these plugins, your site really wouldn’t be compliant to the level needed that protects you from legal action.

这些插件未对网站内容和网站结构进行此类更改。 因此，即使您使用这些插件，您的网站实际上也不符合保护您免受法律诉讼所需要的级别。

Something more iffy about some of these plugins is that they upsell paid accessibility remediation services. They may offer to make your website “kind of” accessible “for free”, the companies actual business model is to sell you accessibility audits and manual accessibility work, with services that can run up to thousands of dollars. This means that these companies know that their free solution is not enough, and does not make your site accessible, or legally compliant.

其中一些插件更令人不快的是，它们增加了付费的可访问性修复服务。 他们可能会提议使您的网站“种类”为“免费”，公司的实际商业模式是向您出售可访问性审核和手动可访问性工作，并提供高达数千美元的服务。 这意味着这些公司知道他们的免费解决方案是不够的，并且不能使您的网站可访问或合法。

如何达到合规 (How to Achieve Compliance)

If these plugins fall short, how can you make your website standards-compliant?

如果这些插件不足，您如何使您的网站符合标准？

To start, it’s important to understand what the WCAG contains. This way, you can reconcile what’s demanded by the guidelines with how your website is made. Many of the guidelines are pretty straightforward and identify which specific features and functionalities are needed. For example, images which are considered nontext content should have alt text tags that provide a description of the image. This makes the content “readable” to those using screen readers. To comply, you simply need to add alt texts to all the images that your site contains.

首先，了解WCAG包含的内容非常重要。 这样，您可以将准则要求与网站的制作方式保持一致。 许多准则非常简单明了，可以确定需要哪些特定的特征和功能。 例如，被视为非文本内容的图像应具有提供文本描述的替代文本标签。 这使内容对于使用屏幕阅读器的用户“可读”。 为了符合规定，您只需要在网站包含的所有图像中添加替代文本。

Recent additions to Level AA criteria in the WCAG’s most recent version (2.1) also provide guidelines for newer devices and trends such as advising against locking website styles based on a single display mode as devices can now have different orientations. Some guidelines might not even apply to your case. For instance, if your site doesn’t feature video content, then you wouldn’t need to meet provisions that require close captioning for video.

WCAG最新版本（2.1）中对AA级标准的新增内容也为新设备和趋势提供了指南，例如建议不要基于单一显示模式锁定网站样式，因为设备现在可以具有不同的方向。 有些准则甚至可能不适用于您的情况。 例如，如果您的网站不包含视频内容，则您无需满足要求对视频加字幕的规定。

If you’re just starting out with your website, then working on accessibility should be easier. You would be able to accommodate various WCAG success criteria into your website’s design. If you happen to use a CMS, you can even use an accessibility-ready theme. Just be mindful of following the guidelines for any new content that you may be adding to your site. You can use the W3C’s markup validation service to check your HTML code and various other free accessibility evaluation tools. If you are commissioning a developer or hiring a design agency to set up your website for you, it’s important to make accessibility compliance a key requirement in your project.

如果您只是从网站开始，那么使用可访问性应该更容易。 您将能够在网站的设计中纳入各种WCAG成功标准。 如果您碰巧使用CMS，甚至可以使用可访问性就绪的主题。 请注意遵循有关您可能添加到站点的任何新内容的准则。 您可以使用W3C的标记验证服务来检查HTML代码和其他各种免费的辅助功能评估工具 。 如果您要委托开发人员或雇用设计机构来为您设置网站，那么将可访问性合规性作为项目中的关键要求就很重要。

Active websites that may have hundreds or thousands of pages of content are trickier to make accessible. If you happen to own one, you might need to get a team to work on compliance. Your site must be comprehensively audited to check for all elements that don’t meet the success criteria. Afterwards, you need to work on remediation to correct all deficiencies. This is why some services look to upsell you this service.

可能具有数百或数千个页面内容的活动网站很难访问。 如果您碰巧拥有一个，则可能需要一支团队来进行合规性工作。 您的站点必须经过全面审核，以检查是否有不符合成功条件的所有元素。 之后，您需要进行修复以纠正所有缺陷。 这就是为什么某些服务希望向您推销该服务的原因。

Fortunately, there are recent efforts that look to automate the auditing and remediation processes. Instead of relying on people to perform the work manually, artificial intelligence and machine learning are used to comprehensively check your website’s code and content and apply the necessary changes to achieve compliance.

幸运的是，最近有一些努力使审计和修复过程自动化。 人工智能和机器学习被用来全面检查您的网站的代码和内容，并应用必要的更改以实现合规性，而不是依靠人工来手动执行工作。

结论 (Conclusion)

Web accessibility should now be a priority for every site owner. The threat of getting sued for noncompliance should be a cause for worry, but doing the right thing is what matters more. Besides, many websites have still yet to work on compliance. Allowing people with disabilities the opportunity to access your content and services can even become your competitive edge.

现在，每个站点所有者都应该优先考虑Web无障碍。 被起诉可能会引起不合规的威胁，但做正确的事更重要。 此外，许多网站仍需遵守法规。 让残障人士有机会访问您的内容和服务，甚至可以成为您的竞争优势。

There are various ways how you can go about compliance. While free tools are worth a try, just be mindful that they don’t quite meet what’s truly needed. You might even get drawn in by their upselling tactics and spend a significant sum on a manual audit and remediation service. Rather than risk it, it’s better to invest in the right effort to either make sure you build your website right or fix the accessibility issues of your existing one through a comprehensive and accurate remediation effort.

有多种方法可以实现合规性。 虽然免费工具值得一试，但请注意它们不能完全满足实际需求。 您甚至可能会被他们的加价策略吸引，并在人工审核和修复服务上花费大量资金。 与其冒险，不如投资适当的精力来确保您正确建立自己的网站或通过全面而准确的补救措施来解决现有网站的可访问性问题。

翻译自: https://www.journaldev.com/40958/beware-free-web-accessibility-plugins-issues