In our quest to demystify the essentials of website accessibility, we’ve gathered seven insights from industry experts, including an accessibility consultant and a web developer/designer. From integrating accessibility from the start to conducting disability-inclusive user testing, these professionals offer valuable tips for creating a more inclusive digital presence.
- Integrate Accessibility from the Start
- Follow Essential Steps for Accessible Content
- Embrace Responsive Design Principles
- Prioritize Descriptive Alt Text
- Ensure High Color Contrast
- Diversify Multimedia Accessibility
- Conduct Disability-Inclusive User Testing
Integrate Accessibility From The Start
Implement a website design and development plan that includes accessibility within all phases of the process. It will save you time and resources to consider accessibility at each phase rather than waiting until the end to perform remediation.
Remediation efforts are much more costly and time-consuming. Including someone on your team trained in digital accessibility will ensure accessibility is brought to the forefront throughout the website design and development process rather than being forgotten.
Laurie Necasek, Accessibility Consultant, All About Accessibility
Follow Essential Steps For Accessible Content
When aiming to make your corporate website more accessible, prioritize clear and concise content, use descriptive alt text for images, and ensure your website is navigable with keyboard-only controls. Creating an inclusive online experience for all visitors, regardless of their abilities, is a win for everyone!
Beth Patton, Web Developer/Designer, Manatee Digital Media LLC
Embrace Responsive Design Principles
One of the most important things to consider when designing a website is how it will look on different devices. A website that looks great on a desktop might be challenging to navigate on a mobile phone or tablet.
To avoid this problem and to create a genuinely accessible corporate website, it’s crucial to embrace responsive design principles. This approach ensures that your website adapts seamlessly to different screen sizes and orientations, delivering an optimized user experience across desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones.
Responsive design involves crafting a fluid grid system that intelligently adjusts content and layout based on the user’s device. This eliminates the need for separate mobile or desktop website versions, simplifying content management and ensuring a consistent brand experience across all platforms.
Luciano Colos, Founder and CEO, PitchGrade
Prioritize Descriptive Alt Text
For those aiming to create a more accessible corporate website, a fundamental tip is to prioritize and implement clear and concise alt text for images. Providing descriptive alt text enhances the user experience for individuals with visual impairments and improves overall search engine optimization.
Ensuring that every image has meaningful alt text contributes to a more inclusive online environment, making your content accessible to a broader audience. This small yet impactful step aligns with universal design principles, fostering an inclusive digital space for all users.
Amber Moseley, CEO and Co-Founder, IWC
Ensure High Color Contrast
When designing or updating your corporate website, it’s essential to consider the accessibility of your color scheme. This means ensuring that text and background colors have enough contrast to be easily read by people with visual impairments. To ensure this, use a color contrast checker tool to test the contrast ratio of your chosen colors.
Additionally, avoid using color as the sole means of conveying information, as this can be difficult for colorblind individuals to interpret. Using different shapes or symbols in conjunction with color can help make your website more accessible to all users.
So, always consider the color scheme when designing a corporate website and aim for high-contrast colors to improve accessibility.
Warner Quiroga, Founder and CEO, Prestige Home Buyers
Diversify Multimedia Accessibility
Making multimedia content accessible is recommended to enhance accessibility on your corporate website. Incorporating videos, audio, and other multimedia is crucial for providing a superior user experience and increasing engagement on your site.
It’s important to recognize that different users have unique needs based on their disabilities. For example, individuals with visual impairments might be unable to read text or view images but can access audio content. Similarly, deaf users can view videos but cannot hear any accompanying audio.
Offering various methods for visitors to comprehend your content is advisable. This could involve creating transcripts for video and audio materials or allowing users to listen to text rather than read it.
Tools like Descript, Scribie, and Transcribe It are useful for converting your audio and video files into text format, making your multimedia content more accessible to a diverse audience.
Karl Kangur, Managing Director, DreamGrow
Conduct Disability-Inclusive User Testing
To create a more accessible corporate website, prioritize user testing with disabled individuals. This involves recruiting diverse testers with various disabilities and asking them to perform real-life tasks on your website.
Observe their interactions, gather feedback, and use their insights to improve design, structure, and content. Regularly repeat user testing to ensure ongoing accessibility compliance and to identify and address usability issues that automated tools may not catch.
By actively involving users with disabilities, you can ensure that your corporate website is technically compliant but also user-friendly and inclusive, providing a better experience for all visitors.
Madison T, E-commerce Manager, My Supplement Store
