Don't overlook accessibility: Why it's crucial for website development

Does my site need to be accessible?

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 16% of the world's population, or over 1.3 billion people, live with some form of disability. This includes individuals with visual, auditory, motor, and cognitive impairments, among others.

When it comes to web accessibility specifically, it's important to note that not all people with disabilities have the same needs or use the internet in the same way. However, research suggests that people with disabilities are more likely to use the Internet than those without disabilities. According to a Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults conducted Jan. 25-Feb. 8, 2021. Some 62% of adults with a disability say they own a desktop or laptop computer, compared with 81% of those without a disability.

And when it comes to smartphone ownership, there is a gap of 16 percentage points between those with a disability and those without one (72% vs. 88%).

Now, we see that there are a lot of people worldwide with disability and I want to share several reasons why it is important to have an accessible website, including:

• Legal compliance: In many countries, including the United States, it is a legal requirement to make websites and web applications accessible to people with disabilities. Not meeting these requirements can result in legal action and fines.
• Inclusion: Making your website accessible means that people with disabilities can access your content and services, which is important for ensuring that everyone has an equal opportunity to participate in society.
• SEO: Accessible websites are also better optimized for search engines, as they are more likely to be accessible to users with different devices and browsers. But according to this article Google doesn’t monitor WCAG conformance, but might in the future.
• User experience: Accessible websites provide a better user experience for everyone, not just people with disabilities. This includes features such as keyboard-only navigation, high-contrast versions of text and images, and clear and simple instructions.
• Business benefits: An accessible website can increase your customer base and reach a wider audience, including people with disabilities.

By making the Internet accessible to everyone, we can ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity to access information and participate in society.

How to start making a website accessible?

• Conduct an accessibility audit: The first step to making a website accessible is to understand where it currently stands in terms of accessibility. You can conduct an accessibility audit using automated tools, manual testing, or both. This will help identify any accessibility issues and prioritize them for fixing.
• Review the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG): WCAG is the international standard for web accessibility and it provides a set of guidelines and success criteria for making websites and web applications accessible. Reviewing the guidelines will give you an idea of the types of accessibility issues to look for and how to fix them.
• Consider the user experience: When designing and developing your website, consider how people with disabilities will interact with it. This includes providing alternative text for images, ensuring that text can be resized without losing content, and providing closed captions for videos.
• Test with assistive technology: As part of the development process, test your website with assistive technology such as screen readers, keyboard-only navigation, and screen magnifiers to ensure that it is accessible to people with disabilities.

"Don't overlook accessibility" is an important reminder that website accessibility should not be ignored when developing a website. This is crucial because failure to make a website accessible can lead to legal compliance issues, exclusion of people with disabilities, poor user experience, loss of customers, negative impact on SEO, and loss of credibility. It's important to make accessibility a priority during the development process in order to ensure that everyone can access and use the website. Therefore, it's crucial for website development to not overlook accessibility and make it a key consideration in the development process.

Useful links

Tools:

• Accessibility Insights - Tool to test accessibility from Microsoft (free)
• Lighthouse - Accessibility Audits from Google (free)
• WAVE - Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool from WebAIM (free)
• aXe - The Standard in Accessibility Testing from deque (free)

Screen Readers:

• JAWS® - The Worlds Most Popular Windows Screen Reader (not free)
• NVDA - NVDA allows blind and vision impaired people to access and interact with the Windows operating system and many third party applications (free)
• VoiceOver - VoiceOver from Apple
• Narrator - Narrator is a screen reader in Microsoft Windows (free)

Checklists:

• a11yproject - This checklist uses The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) as a reference point.
• webaccessibilitychecklist - A checklist for creating accessible websites and web applications.
• Web Accessibility Checklist - Web Accessibility Checklist, Deque University

Conclusion

Let's work together to make the Internet a more accessible place for everyone. By raising awareness and taking action, we can create a digital world where everyone has the opportunity to participate and thrive. So let's start today and make sure that accessibility is at the forefront of our minds as we design, build, and navigate the digital landscape. Together, we can create a more inclusive and equitable internet for all.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post and for your interest in the topic of accessibility. Your support and attention is greatly appreciated. If you have any questions or feedback, please do not hesitate to reach out. I hope that this post has been informative and helpful in raising awareness about the importance of accessibility. Thank you again for reading.