The importance of a website accessible to all according to the Global Report on Disability, around 15% of the world’s population lives with some disability, whether physical, cognitive, or sensory. This is why it is essential to create inclusive and accessible platforms.
What does web accessibility mean?
Accessibility is part of the user experience, which implies that content must be available on various platforms and allow all people to perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the contents of an application or website.
Achieving accessibility is based on the guidelines provided by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, which focus on four accessibility principles:
– Perceptibility.
– Operability.
– Understandability.
– Robustness.
These guidelines also establish three levels of accessibility: A, AA, and AAA, with A being the basic level, AA an intermediate level, and AAA the highest level.
Currently, it is considered acceptable to reach the AA level of accessibility. With these guidelines, designers can create inclusive and accessible Web sites so that more people, regardless of their disabilities, can access them.
In certain countries, web accessibility legislation is enforced to achieve broader inclusion.
Why is it essential for a website or application to be accessible?
Designing accessible digital products is our responsibility so that everyone can enjoy them. This will make the Internet an inclusive space that will benefit both users and website owners.
An accessible website will reinforce a company’s identity, improve traffic rates and search engine visibility, and most importantly, attract a more significant number of users who might not otherwise be able to navigate a particular site. An innovative digital product must be inclusive and accessible.
How to make a website accessible?
To make an accessible website, it is important to follow a series of best practices, such as the following:
- Integrate accessibility from the initial stages of website design and development, considering limitations of all kinds.
- Provide alternatives for visual content, such as images, videos and graphics, so that people with visual disabilities can access the content.
- Use semantic tags to structure content and facilitate navigation and interpretation.
- Ensure clear and understandable navigation for all people, avoiding technical jargon and abbreviations.
- Offer contextual help or tutorials for more complex tasks and provide clear messages in case of errors.
- Make links descriptive so that visually impaired users can understand their destination.
- Ensure that content is legible, with adequate text size and sufficient contrast.
- Provide options to adjust text size, color contrast and sound volume.
To ensure the accessibility of your website, it is important to review aspects such as navigability, design, text, wording, and the use of images and sound.
These suggestions are best practices for designing an accessible website. Although not all of them can be used together due to limitations, over time the sites you manage should meet these requirements.
At EthicsGlobal, we believe in following web accessibility guidelines, as it is the responsibility of all users. This demonstrates empathy and improves the usability, user experience, and search engine optimization of a website.
Read: The importance of a website accessible to all, we recommend: How to prevent workplace harassment?
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