Accessibility is the inclusive practice of designing and coding websites to be usable by everybody. It helps to achieve the fundamental goal of the Web: to work for all people, whatever their hardware, software, language, location, or ability. Accessibility is often neglected, but it is a basic and fundamental part of work for anyone striving for technical excellence. If the mission doesn't inspire you, consider this: web accessibility is also required by law in many countries and situations, and there is a very real possibility that your client will get sued if their website is not accessible.
International standards for web accessibility are developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (better known as W3C). An example of such a standard is Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) that is developed by Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) (where you can participate too!). Every once in a while WCAG is updated to reflect the latest changes in technologies and our understanding of accessibility needs.
According to WCAG, web accessibility can be broken down into four main principles, commonly abbreviated as POUR. Any user interface component or a piece of information on the website must be perceivable (adjusted to different ways users can see or hear your page), operable (usable with devices other than mouse), understandable (readable and consistent and predictable in behaviour), and robust (compatible with a variety of different user agents, current and potential future ones).
To summarise what each principle means in practice:
- Perceivable: no matter how a user is accessing the site, whether they're visually impaired and are using a screen reader or glasses, or hearing impaired and need captions for video content, they can receive all the information;
- Operable: the site must function with various devices and inputs, not just a standard mouse and keyboard — so things like touch screen or even voice control;
- Understandable: the information is clear and easy to understand, and the user interface responds to user actions in a predictable way;
- Robust: the site is built following best practices for coding and design, and regular testing is conducted with different browsers, devices, and assistive technologies.
Under each of these principles there are guidelines that address the principle, and under each guideline there are testable success criteria that describe what specifically must be achieved in order to conform to this standard. These criteria are organised into three levels of compliance: A (lowest), AA (the most reasonable and popular), and AAA (highest, not even recommended for entire sites by WCAG).
A common misconception I encounter quite often is "we don't need accessibility, disabled people don't use our website anyway". First of all, of course they don't, if they literally can't. But second and most importantly, accessibility is not only for disabled people — it's for everyone.
Useful links and further reading:
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