An important goal for all businesses to have is an accessible website. Accessible websites allow people with disabilities to efficiently use them to the same ends as users without disabilities. Across the web, there are a wide variety of features websites utilize to become accessible.
It’s impossible to be accessible for every single disability at all times. Some disability needs conflict with other disability needs, and providing accessibility for one would be a barrier to another. However, in general, there are three features the most accessible websites use as a standard.
Video captions are, essentially, what you hear in a video, but they are written. Dialogue, music, laughter, and background noise are all taken and placed into descriptive captions, usually on the bottom of the screen. You may know them as subtitles. Accurate captions, however, serve as an accessibility feature for people with hearing disabilities to enjoy audiovisual content.
If your website has video of any kind, you must include captions. They are one of the most basic and universal accessibility features a website can have. Some rules for captions are:
Captions must be accurate. Everything in the caption must match what is being said. That includes mistakes, pauses, and stumbles.
Captions must be synchronous. The captions must appear when the audio happens on-screen “to the greatest extent possible” and must be able to be read easily.
Captions must be complete. The entirety of the video must be captioned from beginning to end.
Captions must be appropriately placed, not overlapping each other, running off-screen, or blocking the important content.
“Alt-text,” or alternative text, explains an image. The purpose of alt-text is to be used with screen-reading software for people with low-vision or vision disabilities. The alt-text is read in place of an image and is meant to give as much information as the image did. All images on your website must include alt-text so that people using screen-reading technology have the same experience as those who do not use screen readers.
Some alt-text guidelines include:
Keep it short and descriptive. Alt-text should not contain flowery language but should stick with to-the-point, straightforward descriptors.
Do not use “picture of” or “image of” in your description. Screen readers automatically input that phrase before the alt-text, so including it in the description would be redundant.
Since screen reading technology reads alt-text aloud, use correct grammar and punctuation. Ensure your descriptors are accurate both factually and grammatically so that they make sense.
Many people with motor disabilities navigate websites with something other than a mouse. Instead, a keyboard is used. Ensuring your website is accessible using only a keyboard is one of the simplest ways your website can be highly accessible. Having features on your website only accessible with a mouse serves as a barrier in access to your services and is frequently a target for lawsuits.
Here are some rules for ensuring your website is keyboard compatible:
Keep navigation order in mind. Usually, a user navigates using a keyboard via the TAB button. The layout of menus and buttons should be logical, make sense, and be easily accessible via one or two keys.
Monitor navigation length. Long menus might not be troubling for mouse users, but they can be taxing for keyboard users. Ensure the length of your navigation menus stays easy to handle on a keyboard.
Keep a clear distinction between interactive aspects of the page (menus, buttons, etc.) and noninteractive aspects (images, backgrounds). A website that allows tabbed access to noninteractive points will need to be clarified and inhibit user interaction.
While accessibility changes vary depending on the user's needs, general features can be implemented in all websites to create a welcoming, inclusive digital space. Including these three features will make your website far more accessible than before and should be standard with every page.