Easy ways to make your website more accessible – and why it matters
Did you know that, as of 2023, 1 in 4 adults in the United States are living with a disability? According to the cdc, that could mean up to 27% of your customers and clients! Web accessibility is a common concern for this demographic, so even if you run your business fully online, it’s worth factoring accessibility into the design of your website. Fortunately, making your website more ADA-friendly doesn’t require a big budget, and it pays off in more ways than one.
Disability experiences are diverse, and most impact web access in some way.
In addition to well-known conditions impacting vision, hearing, speech, and mobility, many people live with neurological, cognitive, or mood-related conditions. Each of these can make navigating the web more tricky. For instance, a person with low vision may struggle to read the text on a gorgeous, but low-contrast homepage. Meanwhile, someone experiencing chronic brain fog may struggle to locate that oddly placed menu. Both individuals might bail on this site before finding the gem it has to offer.
You might be asking, “Am I required to make my website accessible?”
If you’re a small remote-only business, probably not, but it’s still a smart move. The ADA covers web accessibility in Title II and Title III, which enforce equal access to government programs and businesses offering public accommodations. These categories may not apply to your situation, but it still makes good business sense to take accessibility into consideration. Here’s why.
Building for accessibility improves your business image, widens your market segment, boosts SEO, and increases the usability of your site for the average visitor.
The altruistic motive would, of course, be to support web accessibility for all. But in the early stages of setting up a small business, you may have limited time, energy, and resources to dedicate to worthy causes. So why should you still give this your attention?
Given the 1 in 4 ratio, building your web presence with accessibility in mind could broaden your market by as much as a quarter. Moreover, designing for accessibility also improves SEO, as search engine algorithms reward pages built according to current best practices. Ultimately, the same measures that benefit those with disabilities will also make your website more usable for the average distracted, overstimulated Jo. Building for accessibility makes your website a better experience for all.
Here are 10 easy ways to start improving your web accessibility:
Choose a color scheme with enough contrast to accommodate vision differences.
Many people with low vision find it difficult to navigate websites without sufficient contrast between the background and foreground. Moreover, those with one of the many types of color blindness may not be able to differentiate certain colors, such as green and red. To mitigate this issue, test out your color scheme with a color accessibility checker like webaim to make sure it passes the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines that govern internet standards. You can also use plug-ins such as colorblindly, to preview how your content appears to people with different types of colorblindness. Remember, contrast is especially important for CTAs, and anywhere you want your visitors to focus and click.
Make your links discoverable.
It may be tempting to keep your links the same color as the rest of the text to preserve your design scheme. However, if people can’t see your links, they won’t interact with them, and you won’t get the engagement you’re looking for. While blue hyperlinks are easiest to see against black text, you can also find other ways to make links stand out, such as double underlining. It’s also a good idea to include interactive elements such as changing the color of the link when hovered over or previously clicked. The easier to spot, the better for your users, and the better for engagement.
Handle image text with care.
This includes alt-text and text on top of images. First of all, it's important both for accessibility and SEO to provide descriptive alt-text along with images. This not only helps those accessing your site via screen readers or similar assistive technologies, it provides context for those interacting with your site while waiting for images to load. Alt-text also improves SEO when it accurately describes the image. This can be a great place to embed those magic keywords, too! Text on top of images is another area to handle with care. If you want your text to appear in a hero banner, for instance, position the text on top of the image rather than including it in the graphic design of the image file. Screen readers can't read text inside image files, and neither can search engines. So you’re doing a favor to others here, but also to your SEO.
Use headers to structure your web pages.
Headers define the outline of a web page visually, which helps you direct your visitor’s attention through the page and toward your CTAs. Incorporating heading tags that correspond to your visual hierarchy in your HTML source code also assists those interacting with your page via screen readers and keyboard navigation. As an added perk, these HTML tags also help search engines pick up on the hierarchy of your page, which in turn, boosts your SEO. For more guidance on how to structure a web page for accessibility, take a look at this helpful checklist published by the university of washington.
Make text and buttons larger.
Larger than you think necessary. Font size standards have been increasing over the years, and leaders in web design now recommend 16 to 18 pt font as a baseline for body text. Larger text not only benefits users with low vision, it relieves the chronic eye strain we all experience from being glued to our screens all day. Larger link text and interactive fields like buttons are also so much easier to use in the restricted space of a phone screen, especially for the less coordinated or more preoccupied among us. Remember that many users may also be using the zoom function to increase the size of your text. If you can configure your site to enable this function without breaking your beautiful layout, all the better!
Avoid unnecessary moving elements.
This could include attention-grabbing multimedia or auto-play videos. Basically anything that flashes, blinks, or whirls. While these elements might seem like fun ways to captivate an audience, the migraines, vertigo, and other complications they trigger for some are anything but fun. Some potential customers will navigate away from a page at the first sight of flashing and so miss out on the value to be found there. If you feel you really need moving elements, try slowing them down significantly or, even better, provide a way for your visitors to manually disable these elements so they can enjoy your page however works best for them.
Use plenty of white space.
More than you think you need. This includes both the empty space around your text and the space created by increasing the line height of text blocks. Similar to increasing font and button size, white space relieves eye strain and helps with visual tracking. A page with lots of white space is like a sigh of relief in today’s information-crowded, attention-grabbing world. Those struggling with overwhelm and overstimulation will love your website for all that white space!
Keep text short and simple.
Use short sentences, short paragraphs, and simple words. Unless you’re targeting an educated niche or explaining advanced topics, copywriting experts recommend aiming for a 5th-grade level. Why? Your website visitors will likely come from diverse educational backgrounds. For some, English may be a second or even a third language. Regardless of the details, you can be sure that your visitors are all busy people, and busy people scan for the gist. Whether or not there’s a disability at play, there’s almost certainly some level of cognitive interference and distraction in the mix. Make it easy for anyone to digest what you have to say. If you’re not sure where to start, try using one of the many readability checkers available online.
Go mobile-first.
Meaning, design your site with the expectation that users will be using it from their phones first and their computers second. Having a mobile-friendly website serves accessibility because it provides options for users with different access needs. This also makes good business sense from the perspective that most people surf the web on the go. People aren’t going to have the patience to pinch and slide to see your page in all its glory if it doesn’t automatically resize for their smartphone. If they have to wait to pull up your website on a desktop, forget about it. If your website is already mobile-friendly, congrats! As you add to your site, remember it’s always a good idea to preview how changes appear on your phone before finalizing.
Choose a content management system built with accessibility in mind.
All these accessibility considerations may seem overwhelming. Fortunately, some of the best content management platforms are already built for accessibility. If you haven’t yet launched your website, do a little research to see which CMS has the best combination of accessibility and other features you need. While there are still elements you or a web specialist will need to manage, working with an ADA-friendly platform can save you a lot of leg work.
Web accessibility is a complicated and evolving topic, but you don’t have to be an expert to get started. Implementing even a few of these best practices will make your website a smoother, more inviting experience for everyone. Not only can you feel great and build rapport by facilitating accessibility, you’ll experience the benefits of improved SEO and access to a larger market segment. Web accessibility is truly a tide that floats all boats – including yours.
If you’re looking for support setting up, managing, or improving your website to better serve your customers, you’ve come to the right place. click here to get in touch with the team and discover h
WRITTEN BY: DEBORAH STEVENSON
