Accessibility is the practice of making products and services available to everyone, regardless of their abilities. When it comes to websites, accessibility means ensuring that everyone can access and use your website, even if they have a disability.
There are a number of things that you can do to make your website more accessible, including:
- Use headings and subheadings to structure your content. This will help screen readers to understand the structure of your page and to navigate it more easily.
- Provide alt text for images. Alt text is a text description of an image that is displayed to screen reader users.
- Use descriptive link text. Avoid using generic link text such as "click here." Instead, use descriptive link text that tells the user what the link is about.
- Make sure that your website is keyboard-navigable. This means that users should be able to navigate your website using their keyboard only.
- Use sufficient color contrast. This will make your website easier to read for people with visual impairments.
Making your website accessible to people with visual impairments
There are a number of things that you can do to make your website more accessible to people with visual impairments, including:
- Use sufficient color contrast. The color contrast between the text and the background should be at least 4.5:1. You can use a color contrast checker to make sure that your website meets this standard.
- Use large fonts. The font size of your body text should be at least 16px.
- Avoid using images of text. Instead, use actual text whenever possible.
- Provide alt text for images. Alt text is a text description of an image that is displayed to screen reader users.
- Use descriptive link text. Avoid using generic link text such as "click here." Instead, use descriptive link text that tells the user what the link is about.
Making your website accessible to people with hearing impairments
There are a number of things that you can do to make your website more accessible to people with hearing impairments, including:
- Provide transcripts for videos and audio recordings. This will allow people with hearing impairments to access the content of your videos and audio recordings.
- Use closed captioning for videos. Closed captioning is a text transcript of the audio that is displayed on the screen.
- Provide sign language interpreters for videos and live events. This will allow people with hearing impairments to access the content of your videos and live events.
Making your website accessible to people with mobility impairments
There are a number of things that you can do to make your website more accessible to people with mobility impairments, including:
- Make sure that your website is keyboard-navigable. This means that users should be able to navigate your website using their keyboard only.
- Use large buttons and links. This will make it easier for people with mobility impairments to click on buttons and links.
- Avoid using CAPTCHAs. CAPTCHAs are images with distorted text that users must enter in order to access a website. CAPTCHAs can be difficult for people with mobility impairments to solve.
Testing your website for accessibility
Once you have made changes to your website to make it more accessible, it is important to test your website to make sure that it is accessible to everyone. There are a number of tools and resources that you can use to test your website for accessibility, including:
- The WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool: The WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool is a free online tool that can be used to test your website for accessibility.
- The aXe Accessibility Checker: The aXe Accessibility Checker is a free extension for Chrome and Firefox that can be used to test your website for accessibility.
- The W3C WAI Accessibility Checker: The W3C WAI Accessibility Checker is a free online tool that can be used to test your website for accessibility using the WCAG 2.1 standards.
By following the tips in this article, you can make your website more accessible to everyone. This will help you to reach a wider audience and to create a more inclusive online experience.
Additional tips for creating accessible-friendly websites
Here are a few additional tips for creating accessible-friendly websites:
- Use a responsive design. A responsive design is a design that adapts to the size of the device that it is being displayed on. This makes your website more accessible to people who are using mobile devices and other small devices.
- Use a content management system (CMS) that supports accessibility. A CMS is a software application that helps you to create and manage your website. There are a number of CMSs available that support accessibility, such as WordPress and Drupal.