Every website owner wants as many visitors as possible. However, only a few take steps to ensure that their website can be accessed by everyone. There are millions of people out there who solely rely on websites being accessible. And if you don’t take the time to recognize their need for accessibility to information, everyone will be missing out. Luckily, accessibility isn’t as difficult to implement. You just need to learn the underlying issues that can make a website difficult or even impossible to use by certain people. Once you can successfully do this, you can take steps to avoid those mistakes and make your website welcoming to those who visit it.
The web is fundamentally designed to work for all people, irrespective of their abilities. When the web meets this goal, It is accessible to people with various types of hearing, movement, sight, and cognitive abilities. Thus the impact of disability is entirely changed on the web because the web removes the barrier to communication and interaction that many people have to go through in the real world. However, when websites, applications, technologies, and tools are not designed properly, they can create obstacles that limit people from using the Web. So the bottom line is that accessibility is crucial for developers and organizations businesses that want to create custom web development solutions and web apps and not limit people from using their products and services.
What is Web Accessibility
Ideally, everyone should be able to use any website that is on the internet. It shouldn’t matter if someone has a condition that affects their abilities or what hardware and software they need to use. This is the main principle behind the concept of web accessibility
Web accessibility solutions are websites, tools, and technologies that are designed and developed so that people with disabilities can use them. More specifically, people can observe, understand, navigate, and communicate and contribute to the Web. Web accessibility encompasses all disabilities that affect access to the web, including auditory, cognitive, neurological, physical, speech, and visual.
Web accessibility also benefits people without disabilities, these are some cases:
- Older people with changing abilities due to aging
- People with “temporary disabilities” such as a broken arm or lost glasses
- People using a slow internet connection or who have limited or expensive bandwidth
- People with “situational limitations” such as bright sunlight or in an environment where they are unable to listen to audio.
- People using smartphones, smart TVs, smartwatches, and other devices with small screens and different input modes.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
WCAG explains how to make web content more accessible to people with disabilities. WCAG covers websites, applications, and other digital content. It is developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). There are three levels of conformance:
- Level A is the minimum level
- Level AA includes all level A and AA requirements.
- Level AAA includes all Level A, AA, and AAA requirements.
The success criteria at Level A are meant to be the easiest to meet, without much stress on the website design or structure. At Level A you are not allowed to identify something by color alone, like “Press the blue button to proceed”. Your website probably passes this example already unless it has a load of complex data charts on it with colored legends.
Level AA requires a tad more responsibility. Continuing with the theme of color, you have to make sure that all the text meets color contrast requirements. The requirement differs somewhat based on the size of the text, but it is pretty stern. In our experience, the majority of websites don’t meet this guideline. You need to evaluate the contrast across the entire site and revise colors where needed, even if they are your brand colors.
At Level AAA, the requirement is even more strict color contrast requirement for text. You can only use very dark colors on a very light background and vice versa. Almost all colored text fails. An average website doesn't target Level AAA conformance, that level is for pretty professional sites as the criteria are really strict. It doesn't mean that they aren't helpful and it's a good idea to at least recognize them as there might be examples that are easy for your site to meet.
How to Make Your Website Accessible?
To resolve these issues, many people use assistive technologies to browse the internet. This includes screen readers that read the text on each page and vocalize it. Some use speech recognition software that converts speech into text. Braille terminals, and even alternative keyboards that serve special needs. This way, almost anybody can browse the web. One can make their experiences significantly better by designing their site with accessibility in mind. We’re going to look at a few ways we can help you make your custom website design more accessible right away. Read more- Website accessibility, why it is important, and how Evon can help?
