In our modern world, accessibility has become a cornerstone of everything we do. You only have to look around to see many examples of accessibility in everyday life, such as wheelchair ramps, braille signage and even bendy straws. But what does accessibility mean to a developer, and why is it so crucial to consider when building a website?
This blog will discuss the importance of accessibility, including what legal requirements to consider, the key principles of accessibility, and some essential practice tips to help you on the way to building a website that is inclusive, compliant and usable for all.
What is accessibility?
Accessibility, from a web developer’s perspective, means designing and developing websites so that everyone can use them fairly, especially considering people with disabilities. This means that your website should be easily navigable, interactable and beneficial for anyone with a disability, like those with impairments such as vision, hearing, mobility and cognitive limitations. Some of the key features on your website might include accessibility for screen readers, keyboard access for those who cannot use a mouse, and clear, defined and readable text.
Importance of accessibility
Legal Requirements
In the UK, and across the world, there are accessibility standards that must be met when developing a website. Some of the standards in the UK are set by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), the Equality Act (2010), and the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations. Understanding the UK laws around accessibility can be a huge help in ensuring your websites meet the standards required. We will discuss these in more detail when we come to talk about key principles.
Why bother with accessibility?
Other than the legal requirements, there are many benefits to ensuring your websites are accessible to all. From a user perspective, showing a commitment to accessibility helps to foster a positive brand image, highlighting to all who use your website that you are considerate of inclusivity and ultimately broadening the reach of your website’s audience.
Designing a website to be accessible also aids in a more user-friendly experience. Taking into consideration the main benefits of accessibility, such as ease of navigation and interaction, often will lead to a website that has a cleaner interface, concise content and consistency in layout throughout your site.
Finally, outside of just creating a great website, considering accessibility needs can also benefit your site’s search engine optimisation (SEO) performance. Search engines crawl your site, reading it to make sense of it so that it can rank accordingly for the right content. Having a clearly defined content structure, along with descriptive attributes such as alt text for images and meta descriptions all aid in boosting your site’s SEO performance.
Key Principles of Accessibility
Above, we mentioned the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, or WCAG. When building an accessible website, it’s important to understand what these are.
The WCAG guidelines are split into three levels, each covering a different level of accessibility:
- Level A: This is the minimum level, covering the most basic accessibility requirements.
- Level AA: This covers a broader set of needs, a level at which most sites at least aim to meet.
- Level AAA: Finally, this is the highest level standard, detailing all the features needed for maximum accessibility.
But what do each of these standards actually mean? When coupled with the POUR principles, we can begin to understand what we must be doing to provide accessibility. POUR stands for:
- Perceivable: All website content should be presented in a way that is perceivable to all, for example, subtitles on a video for those who are hard of hearing, or alt text on images to allow screen readers to understand them.
- Operable: This comes back to navigation, where all aspects of the website interface should be easy to use, for example, voice-controlled navigation for people who may lack mobility and are unable to use a keyboard or mouse.
- Understandable: This refers to content being clear, concise and easy to follow.
- Robust: Finally, to be robust means to be adaptable and compatible with various devices and technologies, both now and in the future.
Accessibility Best Practice for Developers
When building an accessible website, there are some key features that you should always consider to help you ensure your website meets the WCAG standards.
HTML Structure
Your website’s structure is one of the most important factors to consider, particularly ensuring proper HTML structure to aid in assistive technologies and navigation across your site. There are three main aspects of HTML structure you should consider:
- Semantic HTML: Stray away from using generic <div> and <span> elements that do not provide context to your content. Instead, utilise HTML 5 elements such as <header>, <aside> and <footer> that make it easier for screen readers to convey the information to its user.
- Form/Input Labels: When using form inputs, ensure they have descriptive <label> elements which also help to inform screen readers of the purpose of the input field.
- Title Attributes on Links: Finally, ensure links have title attributes that offer additional context, for example, instead of a link saying ‘Click here’, have it be ‘Learn more about our services’.
Colour Scheme
When designing a website, colour schemes are always important so that your website is stylish or in line with brand guidelines. However, colour is also crucial for accessibility and should be considered throughout the design and development process.
- Readability of Text: Where there is text on your website, you should ensure there is sufficient contrast against the background so that it is easily read. The WCAG guidelines suggest a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for regular text and 3:1 for large text.
- Avoid Contrasting Colours: When choosing colours, it is vital to ensure they contrast each other so that they are distinguishable to colour-blind users. If you are unsure, Adobe’s Colour Contrast Analyser can help you visualise and/or aid in picking accessible colour schemes.
- Different Types of Colour Blindness: For your website to be accessible to all, you must consider the different types of colour blindness. Red-green colour blindness is the most common, followed by blue-yellow colour blindness. Read more on Colour Blindness.
Media Accessibility
Finally, many websites will contain various forms of multimedia, including images, videos and audio. Making media accessible to all can play a large role in the success of your website. Here’s how:
- Subtitles for Videos: For people with hearing impairments, subtitles on videos mean they are able to engage with the content even if they may not be able to hear it.
- Audio Descriptions for Visual Content: The use of audio descriptions can be helpful for video content where the visuals don’t convey the information being presented. Visually impaired people can better understand the content that is being narrated to them.
- Alt Text for Images: Alternative text for images allows screen readers to provide context to visually impaired people who may otherwise not be able to see the image.
Testing for Accessibility
Finally, if you’ve followed all the available guidelines for making your site accessible, you want to be able to check they actually work. Various tools out there can tell you how accessible your website is, whether through automated testing or manual testing, including:
- WAVE: A web accessibility tool that highlights areas of your site that could use improvements.
- HTML Validator: Tool for validating your website’s HTML code.
- Axe-core: Accessibility testing tool for website user interface.
- Screen Readers: Manually test with a screen reader, such as JAWS or VoiceOver to simulate the experience of visually impaired users.
- Keyboard Navigation: Test if you can navigate across your whole site using just a keyboard so that those unable to use a mouse can access your website.
Building a site that is accessible to everyone should be your number one priority. Of course, there are many thoughts and processes that go into designing and building a website, but by following the available guidelines and standards, you create something that all 8 billion people on the planet can use and enjoy. The payoff for your efforts in considering accessibility means your site is not only inclusive and useable but also legally compliant with the law.
If you’re looking to kickstart your digital presence with not only a sleek, bespoke and professional website, but one that is accessible, get in touch with Pixel Kicks today.
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