Putting People First
Web Accessibility is all about putting people first. The goal of an accessible website is to make the web usable by anyone including those with disabilities.
Too often, websites are designed with little or no regard for anyone but the designer and the client. Those with visual, cognitive, or physical limitations are frustrated by text too small to read, buttons too small to click, menu systems that are difficult to navigate using only a keyboard, or a lack of alt text describing images.
The 4 principles of web accessibility are that a website should be:
- Perceivable
- Operable
- Understandable
- Robust
Perceivable websites are sites where the content is separate from the style. This allows people with who need assistance with vision, hearing or touch input to use your website. Examples are color contrast and size of text or adding subtitles and transcripts to videos and podcasts.
Operable websites don’t rely only on a keyboard and mouse to interact with the website. Mouse dependent controls can be impossible for people who rely on keyboard navigation. Size of buttons, speed of interactions and animations and skip navigation are some of the considerations to design for.
Understandable websites are not overly reliant on jargon, acronyms, and confusing icons. Imagine your 80 year old mother trying to figure out what that icon means and whether she is supposed to click it or not. Another simple design choice is to never underline any text that isn’t a link. Most web users assume that underlined text is a link and will be frustrated if what they understand to be a link isn’t clickable.
Robust websites work across a wide range of technologies. Different devices and screen sizes, screen readers, and different browsers all render websites differently. Making sure your website works with these technologies is important to reach as wide an audience as possible.
Web Accessibility is good for you and your visitors
Most of these issues are fairly easy to fix and doing so shows that the website owner actually cares about the people visiting their site.
There is no certification for compliance available, but there are guidelines for website design. Kattero doesn’t offer certification, but I can review your site for how well it conforms to the WCAG guidelines, offer guidance on corrective measures and perform a great deal of the remediation.
If your organization is interested in making your website a more welcoming place for every visitor, contact me today.