You want to draw in as many visitors as you can to your web pages whether you operate an e-commerce site or a web development company. If accessible site design is not prioritised, this could be challenging.
Making sure that everyone can use your website, including people with disabilities and impairments, is known as website accessibility. Fortunately, there are numerous tools, resources, and advice you can use to make building an inclusive website much simpler.
Why a Priority Should Be Given to Website Accessibility
The degree to which a website can be utilised by people with impairments is referred to as its accessibility. This can include those who are blind or have low vision, those who are deaf or have hearing impairments, those who are physically or mentally challenged, and more.
It's crucial to check that you're not excluding people who fit this group as the website's owner. Actually, businesses and organisations are not allowed to discriminate against people with disabilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a civil rights statute. However, accessibility of websites should not only be prioritised for legal compliance.
Making your website accessible is a wonderful approach to show your company's commitment to diversity. Additionally, creating an accessible website can increase its overall success. It might potentially enhance the user experience for every visitor to your website.
There are several approaches to improve accessibility on your website. A few of these include utilising clear and simple language, giving transcripts for audio or video content, and adding alt text to images.
How to Test the Web Accessibility of Your Site
It's crucial to first comprehend how to check the present condition of your pages before we discuss recommendations and actions you may use to develop an accessible website. Several methods exist for checking. Let's look at some of the simplest and most well-liked choices.
Use a web-based accessibility tester
Using an online accessibility checker like the WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool is one of the quickest ways to examine the accessibility of your website
You can use this software to assess how accessible your web pages are. Checking for compliance with accessibility standards like the WCAG is one method it might achieve this.
Simply enter the URL of the web page you wish to analyse in the Web page address field and click the arrow button to use the WAVE tool. Following that, WAVE will produce a report that displays any mistakes or potential issues with the accessibility of that page
Install an accessibility browser extension.
You can also download and install a web browser plugin that will automatically check for accessibility issues to use when you want to inspect a website. The Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) extension is a well-liked Chrome add-on
A free and open source accessibility tool that enables users to personalise how they interact with web content is the ARIA DevTools plugin for Chrome. ARIA is intended to make web pages more accessible to assistive devices like screen readers and to improve their usability for individuals with impairments.
How to Create a Website That is Accessible (A Complete Guide)
Designing websites that are user-friendly for everyone, including those with disabilities, is crucial. You can ensure that the greatest number of users may access your website by adhering to a few basic rules. An outline of considerations for creating an accessible website is provided below.
1. Check to see if your website supports keyboard navigation
Keyboard navigation is one of the tenets of an accessible website. Users must be able to navigate your website without using a mouse for it to be deemed accessible. This is due to the fact that many assistive technology only support keyboard navigation.
As a result, you should make sure users can explore and navigate your site using simply a keyboard. This entails visiting pages, selecting links, etc. You can check this by visiting the front end of your website and exploring the page while pressing the Tab key
2. Make use of colours with a lot of contrast
Low colour contrast may make it difficult for some people to read text. Because of this, we advise selecting colours with a high contrast ratio, like black and white or black and yellow.
All items on the page should be able to be distinguished from one another thanks to the colour contrast on your website. Text, for instance, need to be prominent rather than disappearing into the backdrop.
There are a few online resources you can make use of to increase visual accessibility. For instance, Contrast Checker may be helpful while selecting the colour scheme for your website:
3. Provide image alt text
Make sure to include alternative text (alt text) that describes any photos you use on your website. By doing this, people who use assistive technology like dictation software and are unable to see the image will still be able to comprehend the information on the page.
4. Organize and structure content using heading hierarchies
You can make your information easier to read by dividing it into smaller chunks. Because of this, structuring the information on your pages with headlines and lists helps improve web accessibility.
Clear headings can make your pages easier for screen readers to read and comprehend. Additionally, it makes it easier for users of assistive technologies to browse your page's contents and helps with in-page navigation.
5. Add transcripts and captions to videos
You should offer captions or subtitles for any videos you post on your website so that people who are hard of hearing or deaf can still enjoy the information. Screen readers users can experience your material without relying solely on the audio or visual components with closed captioning and text transcripts.
6. Design Forms With Care
Forms should be carefully designed because some users may find them challenging to utilise. This involves ensuring that the form is user-friendly and that each field is clearly defined.
For instance, you should put the labels right next to the fields that correspond to them. It's also a good idea to provide brief instructions that explain to users exactly what they need to know in order to complete the form correctly.
As an example for users, you could also include placeholders with text that appears in the form fields. They will have a better understanding of how to complete the form as a result.
Make Your Website Accessible to Everyone
It's a reason to rejoice when web accessibility continues to advance. Since you probably want to reach as many people as you can, including those with disabilities or impairments, if you run a WordPress website. Fortunately, it's getting simpler and simpler to create websites that are accessible.