Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash
Understanding Web Accessibility
Ensuring an Inclusive Online Experience for All Users
Introduction
When a website is not designed and programmed properly, it presents many challenges to users, including those with disabilities. Encoding accessibility features of a website benefits a large number of people, even more so, organizations (businesses, schools) at large. In this article, I will discuss what web accessibility is all about, as well as also outlining a few tips to keep in mind when developing your websites.
Accessibility and Web Accessibility
Before explaining what website accessibility entails, what exactly does accessibility mean? It refers to the quality of being easy to get or use. So let us use this in the context of websites.
Web accessibility refers to developing web applications that are usable and understandable by a wide range of people, which also include those with disabilities. This ensures that all users, regardless of abilities or disabilities, can access and interact with the web content.
That looks like a lot of explanation, so let me put all these into a specific context. You can imagine a website is like a big playground with lots of games and activities. Now, we want to make sure all our friends, even those who might have a harder time playing, can join in and have fun too. What can we do to ensure better inclusion? Let me explain a few.
Special Signs for Everyone: On the playground, we put up signs that show everyone where the fun stuff is. These signs have big letters and clear pictures so everyone can understand. Imagine a sign with a picture of a slide and the word "Slide" written big. This helps everyone know where the slide is.
Help for Friends with Special Glasses: Some of our friends wear special glasses, and we want to make sure the colors and words on the signs are easy for them to see. Hence, we use bright colors and big clear words.
Unusual Insights
Do you know that the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 1.3 billion people suffer from some form of disability? That equates to 16% of the global population. Also, an estimated 2.2 billion people worldwide are visually impaired.
That is a significant sum to lose by failing to design and develop your website to the required standard. As a web developer, you must take some recommended steps to make your site more accessible to users. These are:
Using Semantic HTML
Providing Alternative Text for Images
Using Descriptive Links
Ensuring Keyboard Accessibility
Providing Captions for Multimedia
Designing for High Contrast
Providing Skip Navigation Links
Ensuring Consistent Navigation
Using Responsive Design
These are a few suggestions to keep in mind as a web developer to make your website more inclusive for everyone.
Conclusion
Accessibility is a critical component of developing inclusive and user-friendly websites. You will be well on your way to providing a more accessible web experience if you take some of these steps.