Internet access, or web accessibility, is an important issue that the online community has been grappling with for some time. Read this blog article for our tips on web accessibility and (re)designing your website.
What is Web Accessibility?
Websites that enable optimal web accessibility or barrier -free access grant all users the same access. Design principles that allow people with limitations or handicaps to have a similar experience as people without these difficulties are adhered to on accessible pages. Basically, attention is paid to
- perceptibility
- usability
- understanding
- reliability
The entire content, the design and the structure of the website are designed to be intuitive to use and easy to understand for all readers on barrier-free websites. Text alternatives and different formats are offered, blinking content is avoided, subtitles are provided in videos and much more.
Web Accessibility: What do companies have to pay attention to?
Would you also like to tackle the topic of web accessibility on your company website? Then make sure your content is accessible across all browsers and in different ways. Also, your content shouldn’t be limited to just one sense or skill (eg, reading).
Tips on the pages themselves:
- The content should not have any time restrictions.
- Each page has only one page title, but it is clear and unambiguous.
- There is a clear contrast between text and background colors.
- Any page can be captured by a screen reader or screen reader.
Navigation tips:
- The navigation is the same for all pages and is a so-called breadcrumb navigation .
- Users have access to a clear site map.
- All parts of the website and dropdown functions are accessible via keyboard navigation.
- The function or shortcut Skip to Content is available.
Tips for the lyrics:
- Text on your pages can be enlarged (up to 200 percent).
- The structure of the texts is clear and easy to understand and divided by sections and headings.
- Keywords are there but not overwhelming.
- Your link texts are meaningful and accurate.
Tips on videos, podcasts and more:
- On-page media will not autoplay.
- They can be paused, paused, or muted.
- All media has a text description that can be viewed by readers.
- The videos are subtitled.
Tips on animations and images:
- Images containing only text are not used.
- Images and tables have alt text that describes the content or data.
- Content does not blink or blinks more than three times per second.
- Users can stop blinking content.
Working on websites: how to achieve web accessibility?
Web accessibility or barrier-free access on company websites is only successful if the topic is approached holistically and the awareness of everyone who works with and on websites is raised.
Orientate yourself on the legal basis and use the experience of daily practice. As a digital agency, we take on, for example, the conception, (re)design and implementation of individual measures and accompany our customers on the way to more accessibility.
At jfkcash, we don’t redesign our customers’ websites all at once, but gradually make them more accessible:
Instead of re-implementing a website every two to three years, we start with a minimum of feasible measures. With the Growth Driven Design approach, we optimize a website in monthly sprints and continuously analyze customer data.
Why? Because we want the improvements to be in the right direction and to create a benefit for our customers at an early stage. This also applies to the appropriate web accessibility .
Have we sparked your interest in web design that takes accessibility into account? Then we recommend this blog article:
Or do you have any questions or would you like non-binding advice? Write us a message – we will get back to you:
Conclusion
Although the importance of accessibility is increasing, websites are still partially or completely inaccessible for certain groups of people. There are mutliple reasons for this; it is often (still) due to a lack of awareness, limited resources or a lack of experience on the part of the web developer. We share our knowledge with our 20 tips and hope that you will also use them as a small checklist.