How accessible is your website for those with disabilities? The increase of employment, government, education, healthcare, business and entertainment services online make accessible website design a critical issue. It also determines whether disabled users have equal access to the services you offer.
Improving accessibility on your website provides you with benefits as well. Your potential audience immediately expands. There are plenty of ways to make your website more accessible, aspects such as layouts, colors and fonts need to be eligible for all users. Here are a few simple, practical tips to implement when creating a disability-friendly site.
A Few Highlights for Your Website:
- Add alt tags to important images on your website. Provide a short description of what the image contains. If the alt tag is longer than 30 words, a description is a better option.
- Colors of links must stand out against the text and the background of the website. Additionally, a cursor change on hover can indicate the link is active.
- Headers and footers should be consistent throughout the entire website.
- Images should not be of text! Instead, apply CSS styling to text that needs to stand out against the page.
- All videos should contain closed captions for those hearing impaired.
- Refreshing must be initiated by the user, do not time/automate page refreshing.
- Avoid using pop-ups which may confuse users, as the page will suddenly change.
- Add a “To Top” / “To Bottom” link to the header and footer.
- Contact form errors should be highlighted and payment information should be confirmed prior to submission.
- Add a search feature to your homepage. If you add the feature to interior pages, be sure the search is located in the same place on all pages.
- Add a full sitemap to your website and link to this page in the footer.
Adding accessibility to your website will allow you to provide all information to all users. Easily navigated pages with consistent colors and layout will ensure your page or blog can easily be used by everyone.