Certain Disabilities Make the Internet a More Confusing Place, and That’s Where we Come in
Value of Making Accessibility a Priority
Prioritizing accessibility in web design is paramount for various compelling reasons. First and foremost, it fosters inclusivity, ensuring that all individuals, regardless of their abilities, can access and interact with your website seamlessly. This not only aligns with legal requirements but also demonstrates a commitment to ethical values and social responsibility.
From a business perspective, emphasizing accessibility expands your potential customer base significantly. People with disabilities represent a substantial market segment, and when your website caters to their needs, you can gain loyal customers and increase revenue. Moreover, it enhances your brand reputation, building trust among customers, employees, and investors.
Innovation and creativity thrive when accessibility is a priority. Considering diverse user needs often leads to creative solutions that benefit everyone. Accessibility features can also improve the overall user experience, making your website more user-friendly for all visitors.
Investing in accessibility may involve initial costs but can yield long-term savings by avoiding retrofits and legal issues. It also future-proofs your business, ensuring its relevance in an aging and diverse society. Ultimately, accessible web design is about upholding human rights and social responsibility, contributing to a more equitable and inclusive digital landscape. Prioritizing accessibility isn’t just a legal requirement; it’s a strategic move that benefits individuals, your business, and society as a whole.
Accessibility Overlays Are Only a Temporary Solution
Approach accessibility overlays cautiously, as they may not provide a complete solution for addressing poorly designed websites. No overlay can guarantee full WCAG compliance, and claiming otherwise can undermine digital accessibility efforts and harm the disabled community.
Overlays offer a temporary remedy and should not be considered a sole or permanent solution for rectifying accessibility deficiencies on your website. They often introduce alternative, and at times, non-intuitive user experiences for individuals with disabilities, potentially neglecting their genuine requirements and preferences.
Not All Impairments are Created Equally
Ensuring the adherence to a well-structured HTML code, while respecting the established document tagging structure, significantly contributes to enhancing the accessibility of your website. It is imperative to acknowledge that beyond maintaining clean code, there exists a multitude of additional accessibility challenges associated with diverse disabilities. Moreover, certain impairments necessitate the implementation of more comprehensive solutions. It is essential to recognize that the advantages of web accessibility extend to all users, but they hold particular significance for individuals who depend on them for a seamless online experience. To illustrate, consider the following instances:
Blindness
Visually impaired individuals face challenges in accessing written content, as they rely on screen reader technology for text-to-speech conversion. Additionally, it is important to note that they often navigate digital interfaces using keyboard commands, such as tabbing, rather than utilizing a traditional mouse input method.
Brain Conditions
Individuals afflicted with conditions such as Motor Neurone Disease and Parkinson’s experience manifestations such as muscular tremors, involuntary muscle contractions, and rigidity, often rendering traditional mouse usage unfeasible. As an alternative, they may employ a head-mounted interface apparatus, colloquially known as a “head wand,” which comprises a head-worn component and an elongated appendage utilized for keyboard input in lieu of conventional finger operation.
Learning Difficulties
Learning difficulties, such as dyslexia, or neurodiversities, such as autism, can significantly impede the comprehensibility of content. Individuals experiencing these challenges may encounter difficulties such as letter transpositions, word displacement, and prolonged exposure to content may lead to discomfort or frustration.
Hearing Difficulties
Individuals with hearing impairments may encounter challenges when accessing video content, particularly young individuals who may face difficulties with reading. To ensure inclusivity, it is imperative to incorporate subtitles or sign language into videos. Additionally, it is advisable to utilize clear and straightforward language in these materials.
How a Website’s Accessibility is Measured
Web accessibility is evaluated in accordance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, commonly known as WCAG. Our team of designers and developers possesses extensive expertise in all three of these standards, enabling us to adeptly tailor our development efforts to align with your specific success criteria.
Websites are assessed across three distinct categories:
A
The minimum accessibility standards
You can navigate the site with your keyboard, it won’t lead you into any traps, videos all have captions and no meaning is conveyed by shape, size or colour.
AA
Acceptable accessibility, something sites should aim for
Colour contrast needs to be at a higher level, images need alternative text that tells blind users what’s in them, navigation will be clear and headings will explain what the content underneath them is talking about.
AAA
The highest level of accessibility
Colour contrast needs to be almost black on white, videos need sign language, you won’t ever get timed out of an order, and tooltips are present whenever the content’s purpose needs explaining.