Improving website accessibility is essential to provide equal access and opportunities to people with diverse abilities. Nearly 1 in 5 people in the United States have visual, motor, auditory, speech, or cognitive disabilities. That’s why websites should follow universal design guidelines to be accessible to people with one of these impairments.
It’s part of the day-to-day responsibilities of UX designers to ensure that everyone has equal access to different elements of web designs, regardless of the users’ abilities, context, and situations. Keeping this in mind, the following guidelines for better digital accessibility should come in handy for you.
COLOR CONTRAST
Is critical to people with low vision. According to World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 2.2 billion people have some form of visual impairment. Websites with low-contrast backgrounds make it more difficult to read texts. In a perfect scenario, websites should have a minimum 4:5:1 contrast ratio and avoid using light-gray texts over dark-gray backgrounds.
It’s not a good idea to use color as a singular visual cue to make critical information on your site more understandable. While combining colors with textures, icons, and highlights in the text, you can help people with visual disabilities easier process the information.
FOCUS INDICATORS
Applied on your website, it can help people with limited mobility or user groups who prefer the keyboard over a mouse understand which element is the focus of an interface. Focus indicators should be highly visible and differentiate themselves from other aspects of the content. A good example is using a blue outline while tabbing through links and buttons on your site.
Screen readers help people with a low visual ability to “hear” the web. Such tools convert texts to speech, thus letting users hear the words written on a website. While writing alternative texts for images, you can help people understand how visuals relate to the story.
CONTENT MARKUP
Helps people easily understand the order of the content. Similarly, screen readers use headings to read the content of a web page in a hierarchical flow. When headings are correctly implemented, screen readers let users skip to the needed pieces of content.
Optimizing your website to support keyboard navigation lets people with motor disabilities, blind users, and individuals who rely on screen readers navigate your site’s content using a keyboard. For example, users can navigate through such interactive elements as links and buttons using the Tab key.
While following these guidelines for better digital accessibility can enhance user experience and bring your site’s usability to a new level. If you need help improving the user experience on your site and taking its accessibility a step further, content the Atypical Design team.