Your website is constantly being judged on a variety of factors, which is unavoidable. Visitors form opinions about your brand colors, aesthetics, and text. The perceived authority of your business, product, or team is assessed by potential clients. But a crucial factor that businesses frequently ignore is website accessibility. In fact, the top one million websites have an average of 51 accessibility issues on their homepages.
For any business to effectively connect with its entire target audience, website accessibility is essential. We’ll walk you through the initial steps you need to take today. The following topics will be covered:
- Defining website accessibility and highlighting its importance
- Eight essential website accessibility best practices you should be aware of
- Three website accessibility tools that can assist you in achieving compliance. Let’s begin.
What does website accessibility mean?
The practice of developing and maintaining your website so that people of all abilities can access and comprehend the information is known as website accessibility. This entails ensuring that everyone can access and comprehend the information on your website, whether they have videos blocked, are using a screen reader, or are simply browsing your site. According to the most recent Website Accessibility Content Guidelines, website content is deemed accessible if it meets the criteria of being perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.
Image source
Here’s a breakdown of what this means:
- Perceivable: Information must be presented in a way that users can perceive (it can’t be undetectable to all their senses).
- Operable: The functionality and navigation of the website must align with how users interact with it.
- Understandable: Users need to be able to comprehend both the user interface (UI) and how the website works.
- Robust: Regardless of whether users employ assistive technologies, all website content must be reliable enough to be interpreted by them correctly. Your website, along with any tools, dashboards, databases, and other technologies it uses, are all included in website accessibility. These components ought to be created with the same objective in mind: making information accessible to users of all skill levels. We’ll concentrate on your web pages for this post, including your homepage, your about us page, your blog entries, your landing pages, and more. Getting these elements right is crucial, and let’s delve into why.
Why is website accessibility so important?
Website accessibility is crucial for all businesses to guarantee that every internet user can access and comprehend the content on your website. This is because you risk losing potential customers, alienating your audience, or even encountering legal issues if your website is not accessible. Websites for government agencies or private businesses with at least 15 employees must comply with ADA standards. And there is a history of lawsuits for inaccessible online content. Although compliance is a major factor to bear in mind when developing a website or beginning a redesign, it is not the only one. Over a billion people worldwide have some form of disability, according to the World Health Organization.
Even if your website is straightforward, you might believe that this won’t have an impact on you. However, for reasons that are entirely avoidable, even the most basic websites are not accessible. In actuality, 5.3% of all homepage elements have an accessibility problem that has been found. It’s important to note that this refers to page elements rather than just pages. It is clear that website accessibility must be prioritized.
You should make sure that your content is as inclusive as possible, which requires time, effort, and attention. Although it’s not difficult, it’s crucial to plan ahead of time. Let’s now discuss the best practices for website accessibility that you should be aware of before getting started.
Website accessibility guidelines you need to be aware of
To maintain an accessible website, you must pay close attention to every aspect of its design, including the media content, site architecture, font, and more. Even though it may seem overwhelming, it’s crucial to start with the most important best practices. Here are the essential guidelines for website accessibility that everyone involved in website creation, including business owners and marketers, should be aware of.
1. Select the best CMS
The most fundamental website accessibility best practice is this one, so we’ll start there. You need a content management system (CMS) that benefits all users and enables you to design website development and maintenance procedures that are both efficient and simple to manage. This is especially true if your small business lacks a web team and is short on time. Once you get the hang of it, WordPress offers fantastic website accessibility features and is simple to use. Another excellent choice is Drupal, but you might need assistance from web developers. Support for maintaining the accessibility of your website may be limited by website builders like Wix and Squarespace. Before committing, be sure to double-check, or collaborate with a web design company to build a website that adheres to all current guidelines.
2. Use alt text for everything
Website accessibility depends heavily on alt text. The HTML element that contains the text, which you will typically be prompted to add to all images in your CMS, is what screen readers will use to translate your image for someone who is unable to view the graphic on your website. Take, for instance, this illustration from Kristen McCormick’s blog post about words for evoking emotion in copywriting:
The image is a wheel that elaborates on emotions and feelings to give you more options for your marketing copy. That is precisely what the alt text states, informing anyone who reads the post using a screen reader of what is displayed on the screen.
It’s also important to note that alt text is a crucial component of our on-page SEO checklist because this is how Google “sees” the images on your page.
3. Never rely solely on color or imagery to convey information
In order to make the content of your website available to users with a variety of abilities, including those who use assistive technologies, you must avoid using color or images alone to convey information. This won’t be clear to every user. Lead capture forms are one example. An incorrect entry cannot be communicated to a user simply by displaying a red box. People who are colorblind won’t be able to tell the difference and won’t receive the information. Include a text explanation in addition to this color-based cue.
4. Structure your headings in a logical order
Headings are essential for structuring information in your blog posts because they indicate the significance of the section to the post as a whole as well as transitions to new sections. These cues aid in conveying the post’s logical flow, which is probably why your brand’s style guide may address headings.
However, headings are more than just text size or style; they are an HTML element. That is, anyone who uses a screen reader can also understand the post’s structure and the significance of the sections thanks to them. As a result, maintaining their order is even more crucial. As a result, keep in mind to always proceed in order, never skipping from an H2 to an H4, and to use headings of the same type to denote comparable content sections.
In our on-page SEO checklist, you can also find more information about headings.
5. Utilize fonts that are simple to read
Another connected advice: Pick a font that is simple to read. From an accessibility perspective, this is self-explanatory. It also has a marketing psychology component, though. Something is perceived as less trustworthy the harder it is to read, according to the cognitive fluency effect. Additionally, if the text is describing instructions, the task at hand is viewed as being more difficult.
6. Ensure keyboard-friendly navigation
Everyone should have access to your website’s navigation because you want visitors to be able to interact with your content, browse your product pages, sign up for your newsletters, and more. You must ensure that a user can navigate your website using a keyboard in order to keep it inclusive. Keyboard users frequently navigate a website using the Tab key. Testing and some code configuration are necessary for this key to function properly when navigating your website. A fantastic tutorial from Website Accessibility in Mind will get you started checking your site. Additionally, in the following section, we’ll provide you with some additional resources to assess your overall accessibility. RELATED: 16 Ways to Make Your Social Media Accessible & Inclusive
7. Verify color contrast
Keep in mind that your website design need to be accessible as well. One issue that arises frequently has to do with color contrast. 86.4% of homepages have low contrast text, which is below the WCAG 2 AA requirements, making this the most prevalent website accessibility issue. The colors on your website, especially the colors of the background and text, must contrast sufficiently so that everyone can read it easily, regardless of visual impairment.
8. Present information clearly in many formats
This is the cornerstone of website accessibility: When creating content for your website, it is important to understand that not everyone will be able to access and comprehend the information by viewing and scrolling. You’ll remember to include alt text and keyboard navigation if you keep this in mind, and you’ll know that in order to effectively convey information, you’ll need to use text, graphics, code, and other means rather than just one source, such as a video or GIF. RELATED: Download this website accessibility checklist from LocaliQ to ensure your site is up to par.
Tools for website accessibility
The website accessibility standards discussed here provide a solid basis, but they are only useful if you put them to use on your website. Here are a few straightforward, user-friendly website graders that can pinpoint the areas or components that need to be improved in order to make your site inclusive for all potential customers.
1. Sort Site
Sort Site is a free, quick tool that examines your entire website to find any errors and offers some background information. You are given a benchmark for each error category so you can compare your website to averages.
2. Accessibility Checker
The layout of Accessibility Checker is sleek and straightforward, and the report clearly conveys the findings. A score, a breakdown of the issues, and the steps required to fix them are all included.
An illustration report from a website in need of improvement.
3. Website Accessibility Checker Chrome Extension
I have a soft spot for Chrome extensions. Whenever I need to, I can use CSS Peeper to assess or check on-brand fonts and colors, and I find that it helps me save a tonne of time that would otherwise be spent making educated guesses or consulting a brand guide. By enabling you to quickly scan any page and receive immediate results, this Website Accessibility Checker gives anyone committed to keeping their website current a useful tool. On a different note, you can use our free Website Grader to look for missing alt text, heading tags, and other elements because many accessibility improvements also improve SEO.
4. AccessScan
Accessibe’s AccessScan is a free tool that anyone can use to determine whether their website is accessible. It audits your website to find any flaws, emphasizes where you fall short, and perhaps most importantly, offers advice on how to fix these problems.
Prioritize website accessibility for your company
You want to make sure that both your company and your marketing efforts are reaching your target market. In order to accomplish that, you must give website accessibility top priority. To start identifying areas where you need to improve, use these free tools, and then review the website accessibility best practices mentioned above to make sure you’re in compliance and inclusive. Here is a checklist for your website’s accessibility as a reminder:
- Choose the best CMS
- Use alt text for everything
- Never rely solely on color or imagery to convey information
- Structure your headings in a logical order
- Utilize fonts that are simple to read
- Ensure keyboard-friendly navigation
- Verify color contrast
- Present information clearly in many formats Best of luck!