Inside Real Estate's ongoing goal is to ensure the unedited 'Hero', 'Warrior', 'Victor', 'Champion', and 'Material' template websites meet WCAG 2.1 level AA standards. Learn more about WCAG here.
Please Note: If you customize your website it may have an impact on accessibility. Inside Real Estate is not liable for any fees or penalties incurred due to this.
TIP: If you are currently using the 'Foundation' template for your website, please update your template theme to 'Hero', 'Victor', 'Warrior', or 'Champion' to take advantage of the ADA accessibility.
Compliance Updates
Since 2020 IRE has made significant changes to increase web accessibility, including ensuring that:
All listing images and base template images have ALT tags
Form fields all have labels
Contrasts between page elements meet the standards
Buttons have accessible names and clearly identified uses
CSS styles are accessible and compliant
Column headers and rows are identifiable with a screen reader
Unique ids are present on all elements
JavaScript, including JavaScript handlers, are accessible from the keyboard
Watch the ADA Compliance webinar with LeadingRE and learn how Inside Real Estate is addressing the increased spotlight on real estate website compliance concerns.
Compliance Evaluation
Inside Real Estate has evaluated compliance with WCAG 2.1 level AA by utilizing two methods:
Leveraging an auto scanning WCAG 2.1 tool (we used a tool called PowerMapper) to identify key areas that need remediation to ensure level AA compliance.
Using screen reader technology available in commonly used internet browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari) to validate improvements and eliminate false positives from the automated tools.
You can see a screen reader in action here during one of the website tests.
Moving Forward
Inside Real Estate will continue to work to ensure the unedited 'Hero' and 'Material' website templates utilizes the standards defined in ADA guidelines, FHA rules, and common web accessibility standards.
It is important to remember key guiding principles for accessibility, including ensuring:
All images have an ALT tag that describes the content of the image
All form fields have labels
Any JavaScript doesn’t cause the page to be inaccessible, particularly for users unable to use a mouse and using the keyboard to navigate
ADA Accessibility Statement on Your Website
In the footer of your website, you will see an “Accessibility” link.
Clicking that link will take a visitor to the accessibility statement.
Hide WCAG Website Setting
In the list of Website settings available to you in kvCORE you will see a 'Hide WCAG' option that is defaulted to toggled off.
This only refers to the accessibility statement that was discussed above and not the template's structure itself; your website will still technically meet WCAG 2.1 AA standards regardless of this setting.
If you toggle the setting on, however, the accessibility statement will be removed from your Accessibility page and visitors will be directed to contact you directly for assistance. Thus, it's strongly recommended to leave this setting defaulted to off.
3rd-Party Tools
Agents and Brokers may use 3rd-party tools (such as accessiBE) to scan their own websites for accessibility details. If you'd like to use a 3rd-party tool you'll need to sign up on their respective websites and any support you may need for these systems will be handled by their support teams.
Custom Header & Footer
If you need to add compliance information to the header or footer of your website you may do so using the Customer Header and Custom Footer sections in Web & IDX - Settings.
To learn more about these custom areas, click here.
Signatures
Text Signatures
Inside Real Estate automatically adds signatures to text messages that are not part of a conversation. If you need to add a signature to all texts you may edit the text templates to add extra information.
To learn more about automatic signatures, click here.
To learn more about editing templates, click here.
Email Signatures
Email signatures can easily be added using the signature toggle within the Agent profile.
To learn more about editing your email signature, click here.
(Keywords: compliance, WCAG, ADA accessible, ADA)