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Promoting inclusivity and ensuring accessibility is just as important in the digital world as it is in the real one. While most people have got a good general idea about what comprises an accessible website, there are lots of other less well-known elements to take into account when designing your site to ensure the information it contains can be accessed by as wide and diverse an audience as possible.
Website development process – illustrative photo. Image credit: Igor Miske via Unsplash, free license
Table of Contents
Streamline the Content
Large chunks of text on the screen can appear daunting – even for the most interested of readers. To avoid this, limit yourself to a single main heading per page of your site, and use subheadings throughout the page to break up the content into digestible sections. Bullet points can also be used to make the text more appealing and accessible.
Using plain English is vital: if a sentence can be cut down to make it less ‘wordy,’ then do so.
Choose the Right Font
This element of web design is overlooked, and yet it plays a huge role in the accessibility of a website. When it comes to most accessible fonts you may not be aware of the potential issues that they present. It is key to ensure that there are no barriers present when it comes to people accessing the information on your site. While more elaborate-looking fonts may appear eye-catching, using them can mean those with a visual impairment or learning disorder, for example, struggle to read them.
Some of the most accessible fonts are the sans-serif options: Arial, Calibri, Century Gothic, Helvetica, Tahoma, and Verdana.
Consider Contrast Carefully
Some individuals with vision problems may have difficulty reading your site’s text if you don’t follow certain guidelines regarding the use of contrast. For example, limiting the use of red and green will make the text more readable for those with color blindness. It’s also a good idea to slightly temper the contrast between the background and text, avoiding pure black text against a pure white background.
Where images appear on your site that is overlaid by text, add a dark overlay to the image or a solid background behind the text.
Think About Using reCAPTCHA v3
A commonly used tool on websites today is the reCAPTCHA challenge, which requires visitors to undertake one or more interactions to prove they’re not a ‘robot.’ This can be a barrier for some people with disabilities, and this should be borne in mind. As an alternative to the traditional reCAPTCHA, consider deploying the latest version of the software, which requires no interaction at all from the visitor, instead putting the onus on the site owner to take steps if the system detects a potential issue.
Avoid Distracting Graphics and Images
While flashing or moving images and graphics on a site can be generally annoying, those with ADHD and other cognitive disorders may find them particularly challenging – and they can even cause seizures.
WCAG guidelines state that content shouldn’t flash more than three times in a one-second period. These guidelines also require that visitors should be able to hide, pause, or stop these moving graphics (unless movement, scrolling, or blinking is an inherent and essential part of the activity being undertaken).
Design with Screen Readers in Mind
Around 4.4 million people in the US currently use screen readers to access online content, and it’s important to design your website with these users in mind. To do so, be sure to consider the following:
Structure HTML Effectively
Screen readers use a site’s HTML tags to get to grips with the regions and content of the page. Therefore, when designing your website, it’s a good idea to structure your HTML code using tags that are semantically rich.
Indicate the Language Used
Screen readers need to know the language the website has been written in to provide the user with the proper pronunciation. To give it this information, be sure to indicate the site’s language in the <HTML> tag.
Make Use of the ARIA Roles
ARIA roles are values used to indicate the function of a region or page element for screen readers. Deploy them on your website like landmarks; they can be placed inside any <span> and <div> tags that have an attribute role.
Include Alt Text
The idea of alt (alternative) text is to provide screen readers with a useful captioned alternative relating to the displayed image. Descriptive, clear alt text should be added to any non-text content on the site, such as images, videos, and embeds.
Why It’s So Important to Create a User-Friendly Website
There are lots of steps you can take to ensure that your website is user-friendly and accessible so as many people as possible can use and enjoy it. While many people understand the importance of contrast and site structure, there are lots of other things that are just as important to take into account, such as typography and the use of HTML to create a ‘map’ of the site.
Use the guide above as a checklist to ensure that your website is as accessible and inclusive as possible – and make sure that any new content added is rigorously scrutinized to ensure it’s up to accessibility standards.
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