The internet plays an important role in modern society, which is why everyone should be able to access it equally. Unfortunately, limited accessibility means that people with disabilities are still discriminated against when it comes to accessing webpages and using online tools. In fact, a recent study found that 97.4% of the top one million homepages had accessibility errors.
To make sure your web content is available to everyone and to ensure compliance with the relevant regulations, take a look at these top tips from accessiBe now:
1. Use Informative Headings
Headings and subheadings break up the content on a webpage and tell the user what information they can expect to find on your site. However, they also play an important role in structuring the page itself. As well as using headings to grab the user’s attention and achieve your design goals, remember that headings can increase the accessibility of a webpage too. By using informative headings and placing them on your webpages at frequent intervals, you can ensure that the structure can be recognized by accessibility tools, such as screen readers.
2. Make Forms Usable
If you want to engage with your target audience, web forms are an effective way to prompt action and obtain user information. If disabled users can’t complete or submit a form, however, you’re preventing them from engaging with your brand and inadvertently reducing your conversion rate. However, using an ARIA property or adding label tabs will increase the accessibility of online forms and enable more users to submit them.
3. Add Captions to Video Content
Online video content is becoming increasingly popular, which is why so many businesses are using it to market their products and services. Although the consumption of online video has skyrocketed in recent years, few creators ensure that their videos are accessible. Adding closed captions to a video is an extremely effective way of making the content accessible to more users, which means it’s a savvy way of increasing your reach.
4. Focus on Site Navigation
When you’re designing or developing a site, be sure to think about how users will navigate it. Many sites can be navigated via a touchscreen, keypad or mouse, but these aren’t viable tools for everyone. Instead, users with disabilities may rely on keyboard commands, single-switch inputs or mouth-sticks to navigate the internet. To enable everyone to use your site, make sure that it can be navigating using a wide variety of tools, including those which are most frequently used by disabled visitors.
Make Your Website Accessible Now
There are many ways you can increase website accessibility, but many people assume that it’s time-consuming to do so. With accessiBe, however, you can achieve compliance and ensure web accessibility in seconds. By adding a couple of lines of code into your HTML, you give accessiBe the power to make your site accessible to all. In fact, adhering to the relevant regulations and developing an accessible website couldn’t be easier when you use the right tools.
