How to improve your website's accessibility

Do you want to offer an exceptional user experience on your website? You’ve heard about web accessibility and want to check what it involves? That’s a good first step, because accessibility ensures that all users, including those with specific needs, can navigate your site easily and get the most out of it — which is, presumably, what we’re after.

In this article, I explain how to design your website so that it can be used easily by everyone, whatever their age, abilities or devices, thanks to web accessibility. It will let you check whether you’re already doing everything perfectly or whether a few changes are needed.

What is web accessibility?

Web accessibility means designing websites that everyone can use, including people with disabilities or specific needs. It covers a multitude of design elements, from page structure to colours, typography and features. In reality, it’s a mix of UX and UI work. The main goal, as you’ll have gathered, is to make sure that every user, whatever their skill level or limitations, can access the information and use the features on offer without difficulty.

Working on web accessibility takes several usage scenarios into account, which may involve visual, hearing, motor or cognitive limitations.

In short, accessibility aims to remove obstacles and make sure every user has a good — no, a superb — experience browsing your site. It isn’t an ethical or legal obligation, at least not in every country, but above all a way of reaching a wider audience and improving satisfaction.

Why work on web accessibility?

Around 15% of the world’s population lives with some form of disability, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). That represents a large group of users who could be excluded if accessibility isn’t taken into account. Older people, whose numbers are rising as the population ages, are also more likely to run into difficulties when browsing websites. Older people aren’t always your target audience, we agree, but either way there are people in your target audience who need your site to be accessible.

Studies show that 71% of website users with disabilities leave a page if it’s difficult to use. And here’s a stat that should interest you: accessible websites tend to show conversion rates 40% higher. By making your pages more accessible, you increase user satisfaction and your revenue potential.

It’s often harder to measure an increase in customer satisfaction if you haven’t set up an NPS score or another indicator, but web accessibility can strengthen loyalty to your brand.

The basic principles of web accessibility

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are an international standard comprising 13 guidelines grouped under 4 pillars: perceivable, operable, understandable and robust.

Each guideline has success criteria that can be assessed against several levels: A, AA and AAA (the highest). The first level already allows many people to navigate your site properly. Although AAA is the level to aim for, it isn’t always easy to meet and can be more costly. Find all the guidelines and their levels here.

The perceivable principle

The first principle, “perceivable”, means that users must be able to perceive the information presented. This means content must be available in different forms, such as text, images and audio. For example, using alt tags for images ensures that screen reader users can understand the visual content. Sufficient contrast between text and background is also important to ensure readability for people with visual impairments. Here are the 4 guidelines under this principle:

• Provide text alternatives for any non-text content.
• Provide captions or alternatives for multimedia.
• Create content that can be presented ****by assistive technologies.
• Make it easier to see and hear content.

The operable principle

The second principle, “operable”, focuses on users’ ability to navigate and interact with your interface. This means, for example, that all features must be accessible via a keyboard, without requiring a mouse. Users must be able to move easily between the elements on the page, and you should avoid elements that could trigger epileptic seizures or other unwanted reactions. Here are the 5 guidelines under this principle:

• Everything must be keyboard accessible.
• Give users enough time to read and use the content.
• Don’t include content that could cause seizures.
• Help users navigate and find content.
• Make it easier to use input methods other than the keyboard.

The understandable principle

The third principle, “understandable”, states that the information and the interface must be understandable to all users. This means writing clear, concise text and using plain language. Users must also be told how elements such as buttons and links work, to avoid any confusion. Here are the 3 guidelines under this principle:

• Make text readable and understandable.
• Make content appear and operate in predictable ways.
• Help users avoid and correct mistakes. You’ll generally know this one well — it’s the case in forms, for instance, when you don’t fill in a field correctly.

The robust principle

And finally, the “robust” principle states that content must be robust enough to be interpreted by a wide variety of users, including assistive technologies. The code must be clean and standards-compliant, to make the content easier for every user to access, whatever device or software they use. Here is the single guideline under this principle:

• Maximise compatibility with users’ tools.

How do you improve your website’s accessibility?

To improve your website’s accessibility, start by carrying out a web accessibility audit. This means assessing your existing site to identify weak points and barriers to access. There are automated evaluation tools for detecting obvious problems, but you generally need to include manual testing with real users who have disabilities. Their feedback is invaluable for identifying the remaining issues.

Once the audit is done, implement the changes identified. Improve the colour contrast between text and background, make sure all interactive elements, such as buttons and forms, are easily accessible with a keyboard, and remember to add alternative descriptions for images.

Tools and technologies for web accessibility

Here are a few tools that can help you improve your website’s accessibility. Accessibility evaluation tools such as WAVE and Google Lighthouse can analyse your site to detect potential problems. They provide detailed reports that help you understand where improvements are needed and how to implement them.

There are also assistive technologies that can be built in to improve the user experience. Screen readers such as JAWS and NVDA allow visually impaired users to access content by reading it aloud. By testing your site with this software, you can identify accessibility problems that automated tools might miss.

Improve your website’s accessibility now!

Improving web accessibility isn’t just an ethical obligation, it’s also a smart business strategy. By making your site accessible to everyone, you demonstrate your commitment to inclusion and you broaden your audience.

It’s even simpler to consider accessibility from the very start of the design process, so if you’d like to design an accessible site, contact us! At digitags.work, we’ve built a hub of freelance talent ready to support you.