Of course, improving accessibility on your site provides you with a lot of benefits as well. Crucially, it immediately expands your potential audience. The math should be evident here. This could put you one step ahead of competitors who may not have taken the same steps towards accessibility.
By thinking in terms of accessibility, you can also benefit all your visitors, not just those who fit the categories we listed earlier. Many of the considerations involved in making your site more accessible will also improve its overall design and usability. As such, you may be legally required to match specific accessibility standards. The Web Accessibility Initiative project has been working since to help improve accessibility online. These guidelines specifically outline steps you can take to make your site more user-friendly.
There are also countless other community-driven projects, such as A11Y , that provide guidance and resources to help you create highly accessible websites. First, we should mention that one of the most important things you need to do is choose the right Content Management System CMS to run your site on. This step is also the most important. Put simply: for a website to be accessible, it must work without the use of a mouse. This is because many assistive technologies rely on keyboard-only navigation.
This includes accessing all pages, links, content, and so on. The most common way of navigating using a keyboard is with the Tab key. Therefore, your goal should be to ensure that all web content and navigation can be accessed using Tab. This is easy to test — simply use your own site without a mouse.
To help you out with this, WebAIM provides a handy guide for keyboard accessibility design. What Is Website Accessibility? We regularly report on diversity, accessibility, and representation in the tech industry. Subscribe to our monthly newsletter so you never miss an article. In addition to making your site keyboard-friendly, you also need to ensure that all content on the page is actually accessible. While this is usually not a problem, it can be an issue when a page contains dynamic content.
What is website accessibility? Why make a website accessible? Use meaningful title attributes Think of title attributes as short summaries that describe where the hyperlink will take the user who clicks on it.
Label your form elements HTML web forms are the primary way of interacting with a website. I learned this lesson while looking at all-inclusive playground equipment. Study the Jungle Jim below that provides its users several points of access. Photo from APE There are several potential points of access to the play equipment. Learn more about how to make a website more accessible There are many methods involved in making websites universally-accessible, with varying levels of difficulty for integration.
Dive Into Accessibility This online book was designed as a day course that educates its readers about one accessibility technique per day, but you can read it all in one sitting, and an average reader can probably get through it in about a few hours. Make your website accessible with WebFX An accessible website is crucial for businesses today. WebFX Careers Join our mission to provide industry-leading digital marketing services to businesses around the globe - all while building your personal knowledge and growing as an individual.
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WebFX did everything they said they would do and did it on time! The whole process was very easy! The entire staff at WebFX has been phenomenal. They are quick with their replies and incredibly helpful. Always provide alt text for images that are used as links. When including links in your content, use text that properly describes where the link will go.
Using "click here" is not considered descriptive, and is ineffective for a screen reader user. Just like sighted users scan the page for linked text, visually-impaired users can use their screen readers to scan for links. As a result, screen reader users often do not read the link within the context of the rest of the page. Using descriptive text properly explains the context of links to the screen reader user. The most unique content of the link should be presented first, as screen reader users will often navigate the links list by searching via the first letter.
Using ONLY colors such as these especially to indicate required fields in a form will prevent these individuals from understanding your message. Other groups of people with disabilities, particularly users with learning disabilities, benefit greatly from color when used to distinguish and organize your content. To satisfy both groups, use color, but also be sure to use other visual indicators, such as an asterisk or question mark.
Be sure to also distinguish blocks of content from one another using visual separation such as whitespace or borders. There are several tools you can use to evaluate color contrast , which will assist you in making your page as visually usable as possible to individuals with low vision or varying levels of color blindness.
When form fields are not labeled appropriately, the screen reader user does not have the same cues available as the sighted user. It may be impossible to tell what type of content should be entered into a form field. Each field in your form should have a well-positioned, descriptive label.
For example, if the field is for a person's name, it should be labeled appropriately as either "Full Name" or have two separate fields labeled as "First Name" and "Last Name. As you are going through a form field, a person should be able to tab through the form and fill out all the fields before getting to the "Submit" button, or they may not even realize that additional fields exist. Essentially, the tab order should follow the visual order.
If you have fields that are related or similar, consider grouping them together using fieldsets. If certain form fields are required, the field should be labeled accordingly, and configured to alert the screen reader user. Commonly, required fields are noted as such with an asterisk, which will not be spoken by some screen readers. Asterisks or similar visual indications should still be used for sighted users, people with learning disabilities or people who speak English as a second language.
After submitting the form, user will need to be alerted to submission confirmation and any submission errors. For a 7-minute video with examples of how accessibility is essential for people with disabilities and useful for everyone in a variety of situations, see: Web Accessibility Perspectives Video YouTube. The Web is an increasingly important resource in many aspects of life: education, employment, government, commerce, health care, recreation, and more. It is essential that the Web be accessible in order to provide equal access and equal opportunity to people with diverse abilities.
The Web offers the possibility of unprecedented access to information and interaction for many people with disabilities. That is, the accessibility barriers to print, audio, and visual media can be much more easily overcome through web technologies.
There is also a strong business case for accessibility. As shown in the previous section, accessible design improves overall user experience and satisfaction, especially in a variety of situations, across different devices, and for older users.
Accessibility can enhance your brand, drive innovation, and extend your market reach.
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