11/8/2024, Milan Ugrin
Today, we’ll look at web development from a different perspective, one that is often overlooked and many don’t even realize.
Web accessibility ensures that content is accessible to all users, including those with disabilities and other limitations. Adhering to accessibility standards also has a significant impact on a website’s success in search engines today.
The goal of web accessibility is to make websites easy to use for the widest possible range of users. We must remember that users with limited vision, hearing, or motor skills also want to access information, communicate, or shop online as comfortably as others.
We’ve outlined 4 key reasons why accessibility is essential for the success of your website:
The accessibility standards are defined by WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines), a set of rules developed by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). These guidelines specify how websites should be designed to be accessible to the broadest range of users, including those with disabilities.
The key principles of WCAG are: Perceivability, Operability, Understandability, and Robustness. For more details on WCAG, you can visit the W3C website.
Each image should have a descriptive alt text that helps users with visual impairments as well as search engines understand what the image represents.
<img src="profil.jpg" alt="Profile picture of John Smith">
A website must be usable even on a computer without a mouse or trackpad. A basic accessibility rule is that users should be able to navigate between elements on the page using the Tab key and interact with them (e.g., click a button) using the Enter key or the spacebar.
Follow a logical heading sequence (<h1>
, <h2>
, etc.) to correctly define the content hierarchy, making it easier for screen readers and search engines to understand the structure of the page.
<h1>Main Heading</h1>
<h2>Section Heading</h2>
<h3>Subheading of Section</h3>
<h3>Another Subheading of Section</h3>
<h2>Another Section Heading</h2>
Each form field should have a clear label using the <label> tag, so users know what to fill in.
Always use high color contrast to ensure text and buttons are easily readable for users with color blindness or other visual impairments. It is recommended to have a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 between the text color and the background color.
In this article, we’ve covered what web accessibility is and focused on the basics. However, there are many other important areas that we could explore in more detail:
We’ll dive deeper into these topics another time! 👋
Accessibility is not just about expanding reach to a wider audience, but also about enhancing the user experience and improving the quality of the website. At NITTIN, we view accessibility as a standard and believe that every page can be a place that welcomes all users – let’s work together to create websites for everyone!
Contact us, we look forward to meeting you in person or over a call.