Web accessibility introduction.
Web accessibility faces numerous challenges and it can take a lot of time to implement correctly, however, it can be one of the most significant aspects separating you from your competitors. Your users will thank you for it and, at the same time, you will improve your web status in the search engine records.
Website development is a constantly evolving field. It shifts and grows everyday following the latest web trends. It adopts new development platforms and gets challenged by expanding list of web browsing devices.
One thing stays constant though.
Web users expect to freely and effortlessly navigate through your website without having to guess the outcome of the interactions. The experience should feel "natural" and, if designed correctly, it should never force the visitor to think about their journey aspects.
All content should be conveniently structured and clearly presented in the web application keeping the users engaged and focused by providing explanations and descriptions to the their actions. Each web visitor can have a very particular browsing requirements and can expect widely contrasting responses and information from your app. Web browsing habits and behaviour can vary between users but also from one visit to the next.
How to start with web accessibility?
Web accessibility should become an integral part of your development process and content creation. Getting a set of rules to follow and imprinting good habits early will save you time in the long run. It is always easier to work with a plan than retrospectively applying fixes and improvements.
There are many tools providing accessibility audits and most of them refer back to the standards set and maintained by the W3C community. It is a great starting point to learn principles driving the modern web.
Start improving your website's accessibility
Here are some high-level checkpoints you can start with:
- All text is clear and readable. Use legible font type, sizes and contrast ratios between the text and the background.
- Maintain logical structure of your content and use heading tags to put an emphasis on the key parts of the site.
- Include page titles and descriptions.
- All web links have a descriptive and relevant "title" tag value.
- All images have a descriptive "alt" tag value.
- Use labels and placeholders in your forms.
Have a question about web accessibility? Use the contact form.