Website accessibility – why it matters and how to tackle it.

Your website is the shop window for your business and often the first point of contact for potential customers. However, not all websites are created equal, especially when it comes to accessibility. 

Making your website accessible means ensuring that all users, including those with disabilities, are able to access, navigate, and interact with your site. 

This blog guides you through the why and the how of website accessibility, giving you the information you need to help you ensure your site meets the required standards.

Why Make Your Website Accessible?

In many countries, including the UK, web accessibility is not just a recommendation; it’s a legal requirement. 

The Equality Act 2010 in the UK requires digital content to be accessible to all users. Non-compliance can lead to fines and legal action.

Beyond legal obligations, ensuring your website is accessible is the right thing to do. It demonstrates a commitment to inclusivity, showing that you value all users equally and recognise the diversity of your audience.

Broader Audience Reach

An accessible website reaches a wider audience. In the UK, over 14 million people, or about 22% of the population, have a disability that affects their internet use, eg visual, auditory, motor, or cognitive impairments. 

By making your site accessible, you’re not only complying with laws and ethical standards, you’re also expanding your potential audience and customer base.

SEO Benefits

Accessibility and search engine optimisation (SEO) go hand in hand. 

Many principles of web accessibility, such as providing alt text for images and ensuring a clear structure, also improve your site’s SEO. Search engines favour websites that are accessible to a broader audience, potentially boosting your site’s rankings.

How to Make Your Website Accessible

Understand WCAG Guidelines

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) provide a comprehensive set of recommendations for making web content more accessible. They are organised under four principles: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust (POUR).

Perceivable

Making your website perceivable is about ensuring that all users can perceive the information being presented, however they access your content.

  • Text Alternatives: Provide alt text for all images, videos, and audio files. Alt text conveys the purpose or content of the media for those who use screen readers.
  • Subtitles and Captions: Include subtitles for videos to assist users who are deaf or hard of hearing. Likewise provide transcripts for audio content.
  • Adaptable Content: Ensure content can be presented in different ways without losing information. This includes semantic HTML tags that define headings and lists, so screen readers can interpret the content.
  • Colour and Contrast: Use sufficient colour contrast ratios for text (sizing of text will impact contrast values here too) and background colours to help users with visual impairments. Tools like the WebAIM Contrast Checker can help.

Operable

A website is operable when all users can navigate and use it effectively, regardless of how they interact with it.

  • Keyboard Navigation: Ensure that all interactive elements work using a keyboard alone, ie no need for a mouse. This includes links, buttons, forms, and other controls.
  • Enough Time: Give users enough time to read and interact with content. This is crucial for users who read slowly or have disabilities that require more time.
  • Seizure Safe: Design content to avoid elements that are known to cause seizures, such as flashing lights or animations. WCAG recommends a maximum of three times per second for flashing.
  • Navigational Aids: Use features like skip links, allowing users to skip repetitive content, and breadcrumbs, which help users understand their location.

Understandable

For a website to be understandable, its information and operation must be clear. So users can comprehend and interact with it effectively.

  • Readable Text: Use clear and simple language appropriate for your audience. Provide definitions for any unusual words or abbreviations.
  • Predictable Navigation: Web pages should operate in predictable ways. Consistent navigation and naming conventions help users know where they are and how to use your site.
  • Input Assistance: Help users avoid and correct mistakes. This includes helping them identify errors and suggest corrections, especially in form inputs.

Robust

A robust website can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of assistive technologies, ensuring long-term accessibility.

  • Compatibility: Use current, standard web technologies and guidelines to ensure content is compatible with various browsers and assistive technologies.
  • Valid Code: Ensure that HTML/CSS code is valid and follows web standards. Use tools like the W3C Markup Validation Service to check your site’s code.

Implementing WCAG Principles: Practical Steps

Things for you and your agency to consider when working on your site.

  1. Start with an Accessibility Audit: Use tools like WAVE, axe, or Lighthouse to check your site’s accessibility status and highlight areas for improvement.
  2. Create an Accessibility Plan: Based on your audit, prioritise fixes that will have the most significant impact on making your site accessible. This might include revising your site’s design, updating content, or re-coding elements of your site.
  3. Educate Your Team: Ensure that everyone involved in your website’s design, development, and content creation understands the importance of accessibility and knows how to implement these principles.
  4. Incorporate Accessibility into Your Workflow: Make accessibility a part of your regular workflow rather than an afterthought. This includes regular checks and updates as part of your site maintenance.
  5. Engage with Users with Disabilities: Get feedback directly from users with disabilities. This can provide insights that automated tools cannot and help you understand the practical impact of your site’s accessibility features.
  6. Stay Informed and Updated: Web standards and technologies evolve, so it’s important to stay informed about the latest accessibility guidelines and best practices.

By integrating the POUR principles into your website’s design and content, you not only enhance accessibility for users with disabilities but also improve the user experience for everyone.

Committing to inclusivity not only meets legal and ethical standards but also broadens your audience, improves SEO, and reinforces your brand’s commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Our design and development team has extensive experience of creating accessible websites and will be happy to help.

let’s work together