Optimize your site with the accessibility checklist

Accessibility helps you unfastened up your contented to a wider audience, truthful much radical are capable to entree your site. A large assets to assistance get you started is this list of accessibility checks made by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). In this post, we’ll item a fewer important checks, truthful marque definite you work the remainder of the checklist arsenic well. Let’s optimize your website for every visitor!

What is accessibility and wherefore is it important?

Accessibility is making definite arsenic galore radical arsenic imaginable tin usage your site. Makes sense, right? After all, you’ve created a website due to the fact that you privation to scope your audience. And by pursuing the checklist, you marque definite you’re reaching everyone.

If you don’t, determination mightiness beryllium radical who can’t entree accusation connected your site. You’d beryllium neglecting a immense portion of your assemblage and successful turn, missing retired connected a clump of engagement and SEO opportunities. So, let’s get to enactment and cheque disconnected these accessibility checks!

Provide a substance equivalent

For each non-text element, you should supply a textual equivalent. That goes for things similar images, but besides for everything ranging from representation representation regions and animated GIFs to stand-alone audio files and video. This tin beryllium done with alt oregon longdesc tags, for instance.

For videos, it tin beryllium done by adding closed captions to your videos. If you upload your videos to YouTube, you tin fto YouTube automatically make closed captions. Still, it’s bully to tally done them and cheque if they’re correct.

Same goes for TikTok and Instagram reels. Most societal media supply automatic captioning, truthful beryllium definite to usage them! And don’t hide to alteration the alt tags oregon closed captions erstwhile the non-textual portion changes.

Mind your colors and contrast

For radical who are colorblind oregon person a ocular impairment, definite colour combinations and opposition simply don’t work. They won’t beryllium capable to work your text. That’s wherefore you should ever cheque if your website’s opposition and colors enactment together.

Example of bully and atrocious colour contrast

The speedy and casual method? Convert your website to grayscale. That way, you’ll rapidly spot what’s readable and what isn’t. You tin besides usage online tools to check the opposition of a web page. Plus, we person a station on accessibility tools, wherever we notation much in-depth accessibility checks for colour and contrast.

Flickering

Did you cognize that if contented flashes much than 3 times per second, it’s perchance dangerous? It mightiness origin photo-epileptic seizures for immoderate people. But it’s besides straining connected the eyes successful general. That’s wherefore you should debar utilizing flickering similar this with animated gifs, blinking text, etc. And if you must usage it, marque definite that users tin disable the flickering.

Make definite your website tin beryllium utilized with a keyboard interface

This accessibility cheque is particularly important for radical who person small oregon nary usage of their hands, oregon who don’t person hands astatine all. They’ll trust connected a keyboard to navigate your website.

Keyboard users mostly usage the tab cardinal to navigate done interactive elements similar links, buttons, and fields for putting successful text. A sighted keyboard idiosyncratic (someone who tin see) indispensable beryllium capable to spot that they’ve focused connected thing with the tab key. This absorption is typically indicated by a borderline oregon item astir the element. So marque definite that your tract intelligibly shows this too!

When you usage the tab cardinal connected our site, a achromatic outline shows what you’ve focused on

Try and usage your tract with tab only! See if it’s easy, and if it’s not, delight marque definite you hole it.

Allow users to power clip limits

You tin astir apt ideate that navigating a website with a keyboard alternatively of a cursor isn’t ever arsenic fast. So, tasks with a clip bounds tin beryllium stressful for keyboard users. And not conscionable them, but radical with centrifugal disabilities oregon generalized anxiousness disorder, and radical who instrumentality longer to work oregon person debased imaginativeness whitethorn besides find clip limits hard to navigate.

That’s wherefore you should let users to power the clip limits, oregon astatine the precise slightest springiness them a informing astatine slightest 20 seconds earlier their clip expires. If possible, let them to get an extension.

Use wide and elemental language

The checklist says: usage the clearest and simplest connection due for a site’s content. Don’t effort to marque it overly complicated. And beryllium mindful of abbreviations (screen readers can’t recognize those) and idioms! While it mightiness marque consciousness for you arsenic a autochthonal speaker, it doesn’t ever construe well. For example, if we were to constitute “now comes the monkey retired of the sleeve”, which is simply a Dutch idiom, you astir apt person nary thought that we mean idiosyncratic yet shows what they are genuinely like.

Image from stuffdutchpeoplelike.com

Writing intelligibly is evidently not conscionable bully for your site’s accessibility, but besides for your SEO and idiosyncratic acquisition successful general. To assistance you, we’ve created the readability analysis successful our plugin. This investigation volition assistance you write amended texts. It scans your substance and tells you for illustration if your paragraphs are excessively long, oregon you’re utilizing the passive dependable excessively much.

Help your users to debar mistakes

Let’s accidental you connection a work wherever radical request to capable successful their idiosyncratic information, oregon radical tin instrumentality a quiz connected your tract to find retired what merchandise suits their wishes. It doesn’t substance however large your mentation beforehand is, radical volition inactive marque mistakes. What matters is what you archer radical erstwhile they’ve made a mistake.

Tell your users what they did incorrect and springiness them an easy-to-understand proposition connected however to bash it correctly. Don’t usage hard language. What if idiosyncratic chose the incorrect option? If possible, marque definite users tin reverse their actions. Otherwise, springiness them the accidental astatine the extremity of the survey/quiz/etc. to reappraisal and corroborate oregon close their answers.

Read more: Writing accessible content: 4 checks you tin bash with Yoast SEO and the artifact exertion »

What if you can’t alteration your site?

To enactment it bluntly: astir of the accessibility checks mentioned successful this station are not difficult. And luckily, astir of the WordPress themes and different website builders are focused much connected accessibility. Still, if your taxable oregon tract doesn’t cooperate portion you’re implementing these awesome accessibility changes, past you should astir apt find a amended taxable for your site.

Conclusion: let’s get to work!

By reasoning astir accessibility, you’re really reasoning astir design, the usage of textual and multimedia content, and the operation of your site. So look astatine your colors and contrast, your alt tags and closed captions. And effort to usage your tract with conscionable your tab key! Let’s marque definite that your website is accessible for everyone. 

Keep reading: Easy-to-use accessibility tools »