Websites owners, designers, and developers are now aware of making compliant websites accessible to all. Many people with disabilities access the internet and browse through the websites. Some also use assistive devices, like screen readers and special input devices, to interact with the page content. So, accessibility is no longer an option but necessary for every website.
- Disabilities explained by AccessiBe
There are various conditions, ranging from minor to significant physical disabilities and cognitive disabilities, which may affect how people access the website. First, AccessiBe lists some of the most common impairments to consider while building accessible websites.
- Visual impairments: There are various degrees of visual impairment ranging from partial to complete blindness. Sometimes, it may be just the inability to perceive specific color contrasts.
- Hearing Impairment: It also may range from partial to complete hearing impairment, affecting one’s ability to perceive audio content.
- Motor neuron / physical impairments: The users may have difficulty moving the limbs or other parts of the body (i.e., test using the mouse or keyboard, etc.)
- Photosensitive seizures – Seizures due to epileptic conditions triggered by looking at flashing lights or certain graphical visual content.
- Cognitive impairment – Different cognitive disabilities like dyslexia, dementia, learning disabilities, etc.
To deal with these issues, people tend to use assistive technologies to interpret the content of websites. Screen readers vocalize the page’s content, speech-to-text software, Braille terminals for solving content for the visually impaired, etc. There are also alternative keyboards, touch-sensitive mouse pads, etc., to meet users’ unique needs.
- Ensuring accessibility
With concrete measures to ensure accessibility compliance and take care of the website management needs, you may achieve site accessibility. As you may know, the benefits of ensuring accessibility and letting more people view your website are many. Besides considering it from the humanistic perspective, it offers better business returns by addressing the needs of a broader spectrum of consumers. There are many ways to ensure accessibility and ADA compliance for your website.
To ensure accessibility, you should choose a capable content management system to build your website. CMS like WordPress and Joomla has accessibility features built-in, and you can also find many plug-ins to ensure compliance with various accessibility needs. Another essential thing in terms of accessibility is making your website keyboard-friendly. There are many people, especially the elderly, who cannot use a mouse. So, keyboard-only website navigation is essential to access all the pages, content, and links using a keyboard. The easiest way to navigate using the keyboard is by using the Tab key. It will help to jump around various page areas, including buttons, links, and forms. So, make sure that your website navigation can be accessed using the Tab key.
You need to add tags to the content to define it clearly on the web page. You may tag the dynamic range like “live region,” which will assist the screen readers and other assistive devices read the page’s content and help the users understand. In terms of accessibility compliance, AccessiBe also suggests following the ARIA standard landmarks.
