In honor of October being Disability Awareness Month, I'm dedicating a post to something I spend a large part of my day on: making webpages accessible.
What is web accessibility? you may wonder. Accessibility refers to the experience of users who might access or interact with webpages differently than expected. Specifically, it concerns users with some sort of impairment or disability, including those that are non-physical (i.e., attention deficit disorder) or temporary (i.e., a broken wrist).
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| Impairments fall into four broad categories: visual, motor, hearing, and cognitive. |
Accessibility is essential for web developers and businesses that want to create high-quality webpages and not exclude people from using their products and services.
Now that we've defined accessibility, how does one make a webpage accessible? One has to develop for four main categories of impairment: visual, motor, hearing, and cognitive. As you can imagine, the range of abilities to develop for is as broad as the range of accessibility issues that can occur, but I'll provide a brief overview.
For users who either can't or choose not to use a mouse, keyboard navigation is their primary means of reading the computer screen. This audience includes users with visual and motor impairments. For a good keyboarding experience, aim to have a logical tab order and easily discernable focus styles.
For hearing-impaired users, make sure to use things like video captions and transcripts, or provide an alternative solution if sound is part of the website's interface.
Users with ADD, dyslexia, and autism may prefer using zoom functionality to make reading or concentrating easier. These users may also find that simple site design works best, as it minimizes distraction and cognitive overload.
Websites, applications, and tools that are accessible to people with disabilities are more accessible to older users as well. With declining vision, hearing, physical ability, and cognitive functioning, the needs of older users often overlap those of people with disabilities.
It's important to keep in mind that when a webpage is made accessible, all users benefit from the experience, regardless of their disability status.
Thanks to Google's Web Fundamentals - Accessibility and W3C’s Introduction to Web Accessibility.
