I remember an exercise I had to do in high school once in which I had to try to navigate one of the school’s hallways with a blindfold to get an idea of what it was like to live like a blind person, even if it was just for a few moments. I was amazed at how quickly I got lost in what was normally a very familiar environment. I thought I had it all figured it out when I found a wall and walked alongside it while keeping contact with my hand. What I had not counted on was a classroom door standing open so that it was perpendicular to the wall. I hadn’t thought to put a hand in front of me, so I slammed face first into the door.
I continue to be amazed when I see blind people navigating the world with nothing more than a stick, and I can’t imagine trying to use the internet without vision. I know there are braille keyboards and screen-reading software, but it still seems like a daunting task. So with all this in mind, what are you doing to make it easier for people with disabilities to navigate your site?
Website accessibility is all about making sure everyone can easily use your website. And don’t make the mistake of thinking that software they have on their end (such as screen-reading software) will do all the heavy lifting for you. Those programs can only do so much, and in order to work, they need your website to be properly set up.
And keep in mind website accessibility does not only refer to blind people. It also refers to people with:
- deafness
- hearing loss
- low vision
- cognitive disabilities
- speech disabilities
- physical disabilities
Any of these disabilities can be either temporary or permanent. Either way, they shouldn’t prevent someone from being able to use your website.
Legally, website accessibility is required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). That means any website that is not accessible could get fined by the Department of Justice. And the justice department keeps fining you until the issue is resolved, so you’re much better off being proactive about your website accessibility than waiting until there’s an issue.
You could also get sued if someone with a disability finds their way to your website, only to discover they can’t use it because it’s not set up for them.
While no one likes to get sued, and the threat of potential fines and/or lawsuits can be very intimidating, I don’t think they should be the only reason we make our websites accessible. Accessibility should be a priority because people with disabilities are people, so why wouldn’t we want to make sure they can use our websites as easily as anyone else? They buy things and make referrals to their friends and family just like anyone else, so if you’re looking to grow your business, you should be motivated to make sure everyone can buy from you, regardless of whether they have a disability.
Now that we know why website accessibility is so important, let’s talk about how to achieve it.
Table of Contents
- What Are the Requirements for Website Accessibility?
- How to Make Your Website Accessible
- How to Tell if Your Website Is ADA Compliant
What Are the Requirements for Website Accessibility?
There are three main areas of website accessibility, and you need to make sure your website checks all the boxes under each category to make sure your website is accessible: structural accessibility, nonvisual accessibility, and informational accessibility.
Structural Accessibility
Structural accessibility refers to how easy it is for people to navigate your website without a mouse. Whether they have a disability that makes it hard for them to physically use a mouse or they have low vision or blindness so they rely on the braille on their keyboard and their screen-reading software to tell them where their cursor is, your website needs to be set up for keyboard navigation. This includes text alternatives for buttons, short pages that don’t require users to scroll down to access all the content, etc.
Nonvisual Accessibility
To accommodate those with low vision or blindness, you need to make sure you have information available to them in a nonvisual format. Ideally, you should have all that information available on a single tab that users can access through their keyboard.
Informational Accessibility
Is all the information on your website accessible to everyone? Not only does this mean making sure you have information in a nonvisual format, you also need to make sure those with cognitive disabilities or a lower level of education can still understand what you’re trying to say.
This means you need to keep it short. Short paragraphs with lots of white space make your content much easier to read. Shorter sentences are easier to digest, and shorter words are more likely to be understood by most, if not all, of your website visitors. The general rule is to keep words at three or fewer syllables. I know that’s not always possible, especially if you work in a complicated industry, such as insurance or legal services, but do your best. And for those of you providing legal services, avoid using Latin words and phrases on your website.
How to Make Your Website Accessible
It’s one thing to know the requirements for website accessibility, but it’s another thing entirely to apply that into creating and maintaining a website that is accessible for all. Here are some actionable tips you can use.
Include Text Alternatives
All videos, images, and audio content on your website need to have text alternatives so those with low vision or blindness can access them through their screen-reading software. The easiest way to do this with images is to include alt text. Most website platforms, including WordPress, include an alt text box you can type your description into every time you add an image to your content.
Google has said the image alt text doesn’t do anything for SEO except for image searches, so you don’t have to worry about including your target keywords in the image alt text unless you want that image to rank for certain image searches. Just try to describe the image as accurately as possible for those who can’t see it.
If you’re using images to break up your content and there’s no important information contained in the image, you can include the alt attribute, but leave it blank, which would look like this: <img src=”decorative.png” alt=”” />
Include Transcripts
For audio content, such as podcast episodes, and video content, always include a transcript. This is a general SEO recommendation I always give since Google cannot “read” audio or visual content (at least not yet). Including a transcript for audio content or subtitles for videos gives Google something to read so it can index that content. It also gives those with hearing impairments the ability to consume that content.
If, for some reason, you don’t want Google to index that content, but you still want it to be accessible to the deaf or hearing impaired, you can always include the text and a no-index tag to that page.
Use Color Wisely
When including images and video in your content, make sure to use color contrast so everyone can clearly see everything you’re showing them. If you’re doing videos, don’t wear a top that matches your background. For images, make sure to include colors with enough contrast that everyone can clearly see them, including those with colorblindness. That means avoiding matching a primary color with a primary color. You may or may not have heard of a sporting event a while back featuring a team wearing red and a team wearing green. Fans with colorblindness complained because the two colors looked the same to them, so keep those things in mind when you’re creating visual content for your website.
And whatever you do, don’t try to get clever with your print by doing something like making your background black and your text white. It makes your content difficult to read and gives people a headache. The standard is black on white for a reason, so stick with it. And make sure your type is large enough users can easily read it.
Don’t Force Users to Listen to You
Audio content should come with the ability for users to turn down the background noise, mute the audio, or stop the video from playing. Even for those of us without disabilities, there are few things more annoying than a video that automatically plays and you can’t get it to shut up.
Avoid Content That Blinks or Flashes
It might get the user’s attention initially, but it can also get very annoying very quickly if it keeps up. And anything that flashes more than three times has the potential to induce seizures in those who are susceptible to seizures, so if you must use blinking or flashing imagery, make sure it flashes no more than three times.
Avoid Content That Moves Faster Than Your User
Testimonials are great social proof and should always be included on a website, but if your testimonials are in a carousel that moves faster than people can read the testimonials, they don’t do you any good. Any content on your website that comes with a time limit should give users the opportunity to pause and playback that content, including carousels, videos, and audio content.
This also applies to drop-down menus. By setting a time delay before the menu disappears, you give people time to finish finding what they’re looking for if they accidentally hover their cursor away from the menu.
Let People Know Where They Are
Provide clear page titles, headlines, and clearly marked links. People should be able to tell at a glance where they are on your website and how to get to where they want to go. The easier you make it for them to do that, the lower your bounce rate will be.
Optimize Your Error Messages
It’s always frustrating to get an error message, so don’t make it worse by making your users guess as to how they got there or how they can get out of it. Provide a clear description of what the error is, as well as instructions for how they can get back to where they were trying to go.
How to Tell if Your Website is ADA Compliant
There are several tools out there that can scan your website for potential compliance issues. One such tool is provided by the ADA.
There’s also a color contrast validator to make sure all your images are clear and easy to see.
As an English major, I haven’t always been a fan of using shorter words and shorter sentences in my writing. But the more I learn about how keeping it short makes it easier for people to read, the more committed I’ve becoming to using short words and sentences as much as possible.
If you need content for your website that is both engaging and easy for everyone to read and understand, I can help.
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