Most people in the UK today use the Internet on a daily basis. We use it in the morning for reading the news, checking the weather and to update our Facebook status. Later at work, with the help of the Internet, we check our e-mail, pay our bills and book meetings. Finally back home we might look for a trip somewhere sunny, read blogs, watch some videos and in between all that some more Facebook updates. Its hard to even try to imagine a life without the Internet, but what if every time you visited a site it was extremely difficult to use simply because you found it harder to read, understand and navigate your way through the site?. In this post we’re going to look at some relatively easy website accessibility features you can implement for individuals with disabilities, making it easier for all audiences alike.
In the UK today there are about 6.9 million people of working age with disabilities. Like everybody else they are dependent on the Internet and use it daily. If websites are not usable for them, many might be left outside the information society and will not benefit from the many time and effort saving possibilities the web has to offer.
To prevent it a website needs to be accessible, in most cases organisations tend to revert to the W3C accessibility initiative which has set up standards that govern what website owners need to do in order to be fully compliant. The highest level that can be attained is the W3C compliant status which a lot of websites strive towards. In actual fact whilst it would be fantastic if every site could attain this level most are unable to because it represents a massive ongoing task for both the site administrators and those who responsible for building and maintain the site. What often makes much more sense is to pay attention to the fixes which can be put in place and easily adhered to – these are often the ones which will cater for the vast majority of site audiences. The other key is to take notice of you website visitors if they do in fact contact you regarding areas of your site that they are finding it difficult to interact with.
Here are five easy things you can do to make your website more accessible:
1. Media
Video and audio content are great for enriching your website but it’s always good to offer alternatives for people with disabilities. If you for example offer an introduction video on your site make sure you also have a transcript of the video available in text as a basic requirement, if you are able it’s always better to caption the video. Another potentially confusing occurrence is when media automatically starts playing when the page loads, this can be an issue with those who are unable to quickly and easily stop it. We would recommend giving them a click to play option instead.
2. Animations
Websites today have more and more animations. If used the right way they really can enrich the user experience but they can also make the website less accessible. For example a dropdown menu only accessible by hovering over the parent item can cause difficulties for someone with reduced motor skills. A good alternative to this is to give the user the possibility to use the keyboard for navigation. In addition to menu animations there can also be a number of moving elements to the site which when overused can be distracting and difficult to absorb. Whilst we think there is great value in items such as slide-show banner images to serve multiple messages on the homepage we usually advise that some user control be added and the total number of ‘carousel’ style features are kept to a minimum
3. Images and links
After a website has been launched, the website owner usually takes over its management including updating content. When adding images and links it’s important to remember to also add a description. Without a description a visitor using a screen reader to access the content will only get the information link and image. With a description the visitor will instead get information like ‘image of car‘ and ‘link to gallery’.
4. Text images
To get a unique look many websites use images for representing text. This is especially the case for many menus and headlines. The screen reader users will face the same problem as with images and links without description since screen readers can’t read text from images. Therefore always use a description or alternative text.
5. Visual Options
As many as 8% of your websites visitors might have difficulties to read the content or navigate if the colours are wrong. To prevent this there are different tools, like this one http://gmazzocato.altervista.org/colorwheel/wheel.php, that you can use to ensure the background and foreground provide sufficient contrast. With many websites nowadays there are often a number of page style sheets available – essentially they offer the same page with possibly 3 further colour/contrast options so the user can define the combination which is most suitable for them. In addition to difficulties due to colour there are those with visual impairments who may find large amounts of text difficult to consume. another potential style option would be to offer a text re-sizing facility which essentially changes font size with a mouse click. In addition to there is the option of including BrowseAloud, a tool for reading support which can be implemented into a site and does not require the user to have any other additional software.
If you found this article useful or would like to offer any additional tips for our readers please do so via the comments box below.
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