Anyone and Everyone Are Welcome! The Basics of Accessible Web Design

Jonesen TeamIndustry Insights

Does your website meet accessibility standards? Making your website accessible to all is best for reaching larger, more diverse audiences with your web content.

Are you wondering what accessible web design entails? Keep reading to learn more about this topic so that you can make your website more accessible starting today.

The Basics

Accessible web design is evaluated by how easy it is for people to use your site. This practice is specifically aimed at making sure those that are disabled or impaired can still use your site.

Accessible web design works to figure out ways that those with impaired hearing, vision, and movement can navigate websites. Web designers that focus on accessibility work to make sure sites are easy for all to navigate and understand.

The Guidelines

There are web design accessibility standards companies can use to make sure they build a website fit for all. One of the four standards is perceivable, or how your website content can be consumed in multiple ways. An example of this could be adding close captioning to the videos on your site.

You also want to make sure your site is operable. This standard ensures that your website is easy to understand and can be navigated without the use of a mouse or other complex movements and interactions. You want to make sure the site is understandable, both in terms of content and navigation.

Making your site robust allows users to use assistive devices, such as screen readers, to use your website. These guidelines are rated from A, being the lowest requirement for accessibility, to AAA, being the gold standard of accessibility. While these guidelines may seem intimidating, there are some simple things you can change on your site to improve accessibility.

Changes You Can Make

The copy content on your site can be improved to increase accessibility. For example, using a hierarchy with your text can help users navigate your site with more ease than making all of your typography the same size and shade. Copy should work to be descriptive so that it is easier to understand for all users, and especially those with visual impairment.

Using color contrast between the text foreground color and your background color on your site pages can also affect the legibility of your site. Giving your website visitors the option to adjust the background and foreground color of the text can help you improve accessibility for those with visual impairments.

Using alt text with your images can be great for those who cannot see them. It’s important to make this text descriptive to help with visualizing. When writing any of your website content, it’s best to avoid jargon and unusual words to make sure it is easy for all to understand.

Accessible Web Design: The Basics

Now that you know the basics of accessible web design, you can take the first steps to make your site welcoming for all. Allowing your site to be easy for all to understand and navigate can help you make your site available to larger audiences.

Are you looking for a company that can help you make the web design changes you need? Contact us today to get started.

For further information on ADA Compliance and a tool that will automatically make your site 96% compliant visit ADAEnabled