What Is Web Accessibility and Why It Is Important?
It is of great importance to have a clear understanding of web accessibility before proceeding.
Accessibility refers to the capacity of each individual to gain access to something.
Web Accessibility is a concept that encourages inclusivity by allowing people with disabilities to gain access to websites and web applications.
Web accessibility can be outlined as the practice of creating websites, applications, and tools that can be easily used by people who have disabilities. This involves developing features that enable those with hearing, sight, or mobility impairment to use the technology.
Improving access to the web enables users to gain a much better understanding, navigate more readily, and effectively interact with it.
We know how search engines work. Robots are dispatched to cruise through websites, cataloguing and rating them based on multiple criteria that are taken into account for rank determination.
Likewise, technology that aids with daily activities (AT) relies on readings within the coding to work out the purpose of what is being searched for.
Fortunately, there isn’t a lot required to guarantee your website is usable by assistive technology tools. The majority of the conditions that need to be fulfilled for successful SEO are encompassed in the key aspects of SEO rankings, which include page titles, headings, anchor text and ALT text.
Ensuring that users with Assistive Technology (AT) can effectively utilize your website or application is of utmost importance when it comes to accessibility. It is necessary to take steps to make sure that people with a variety of AT can navigate your platform without difficulty.
Having accessibility available is essential for those who have disabilities, and it is additionally helpful for people not affected by disabilities.
Here’s how:
- It helps people accessing the web through a slow internet connection or via a smaller screen such as mobile phones, smartwatches, smart TVs, and so on.
- It helps older people whose abilities get worse over time.
- It helps people with temporary disabilities, such as lost glasses or a broken arm.
5 Types of Web Accessibility Impairments
Disabilities are not just limited to sight or hearing. It is important to comprehend the various kinds of disability or impairment.
1. Visual
Visual impairments can vary from slight to serious vision loss.
These include:
- Color blindness – arises from the difficulty of distinguishing between colors such as red and green, yellow and blue, and in some cases, the inability to perceive any color.
- Low vision – which includes blurry vision, the ability to see either the center of the visual field or only the edges of the visual field
- Blindness – having a substantial to complete loss of vision in both eyes.
2. Auditory
These include mild to moderate hearing impairment. Incomplete loss of audio materials can create issues.
These include:
- Hard of hearing – moderate hearing impairment
- Deafness – substantial and uncorrectable hearing impairment in both ears.
3. Physical
Conditions resulting from impairments in muscular control include paralysis, lack of motor coordination, deficient perception, joint problems like arthritis, and the absence of limbs.
These include:
- Arthritis – damage to the joints
- Amputation – missing limbs, or other parts of the body
- Paralysis – Loss of control over parts of the body.
4. Speech
This pertains to an incapacity to communicate with understandable words to other people or technology.
This includes:
- Muteness – the inability to speak caused due to mental disorders and cognitive impairments
- Dysarthria – paralysis of the muscles, including lips, throat, tongue required to speak.
5. Cognitive, Learning, and Neurological
People will have varying degrees of difficulty in comprehending and handling information depending on their disabilities.
These include:
- Autism – impairments of social communication
- Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) – involves difficulty in focusing on a single task or being easily distracted.
- Mental health disabilities – conditions such as anxiety, mood disorders that may cause difficulty in focusing and processing information
- Memory impairments – implies short-term memory or limited ability to recall language.
How People With Disabilities Use the Web
Individuals with impairments make use of a variety of assistive technology (AT). Adaptive Technology (AT) is created with the intention of aiding those living with handicaps and issues with their sight.
These are programs and instruments that support individuals with special needs when they are online.
Screen Readers
A speech synthesizer or Braille translator is employed by a screen reader to vocalize the words displayed on the screen or, in some cases, convert them into Braille.
Have you ever stopped to consider if you are actually reading all the content displayed on the screen? For instance, do you take a look at the notices in the page, along with the approved and liked blogs in the side navigation?
We’re guessing not all of us read them out. We don’t!
Visually impaired individuals have the ability to easily manage what is read to them via a satisfactory screen reader. This is achieved by skimming a single line of text, locating strings in the display, only concentrating on the bold words, or focusing on words that are in a particular hue.
Several renowned screen readers are COBRA, Hal, and JAWS (Job Access with Speech).
Braille Keyboards
A Braille keyboard is vastly distinct from a typical QWERTY keyboard.
The eight primary keys used to construct Braille letters consist of: In addition to the eight main keys, there is the space bar and the various function keys.
The commonplace QWERTY keyboards have Braille characters placed over them. Braille keyboards provide a convenient way for those with visual impairments to maneuver and pinpoint the cursor’s location.
Screen Magnifiers
This solution is beneficial for those with visual impairments, but it does not offer much assistance for those who are totally blind.
Magnifying tools are offered in a couple of different formats. You can purchase an external apparatus which acts similarly to a magnifying glass, or install software on your computer for the same effect.
The perfect screen magnifiers should maximize the enlargement of data while decreasing reflections, increasing the accuracy of the cursor movement, as well as enhancing the sharpness of the contrasts.
Voice Controls
Want to command the computer with your voice? Employ voice control programs that aid in turning speech into text.
This is not a definite answer, nevertheless, it assists those with disabilities in using the internet in incorporation with other assistive technology approaches.
A top-rated and feature-rich voice control program is Dragon.
User Experience
Rather than focusing solely on ratings, it’s critical to ensure a website is accessible to everyone.
This will result in higher levels of customer contentment, as well as elevating the perception and steadfastness of the brand.
When websites are not user-friendly, it can be a major obstacle for certain people in accomplishing necessary tasks or locating the information they desire.
Holly Tuke has written a noteworthy piece focusing on the bothersome elements of webpages that are not accessible for screen reader users.
Google is focusing more on incentivizing websites that offer a pleasant experience for users.
They have made it clear that they take accessiblity seriously in an effort to give people the best possible websites in search results. They feel that sites that are easy to read and straightforward to use are the most beneficial and those are the websites they wish to promote.
Legal Implications
Having an accessible website is essential for a satisfactory user experience and usually a legal requirement.
In 2019, the European Union implemented the European Accessibility Act.
This law applies to items and services like computers and their software, cell phones, and online marketplaces.
They must be suitable with assistive technologies and delivered in a way that is suitable for everyone.
According to the Americans Disability Act, first established in 1990, website accessibility is a requirement for all sites operating in the United States. This legislation prevents people with disabilities from facing prejudicial treatment.
Under this law, websites that have elements that are not accessible can be regarded as discriminatory and in breach of Title III.
The 2010 UK Equality Act sets out regulations for websites to abide by in order to ensure people are not treated unfairly and UK society is maintained as a fair and equal one. The Act covers accessibility for online resources based in the UK.
The 4 Principles of Accessibility
In order to be accessible, a website must meet four principles, known as POUR:
- Perceivable
- Operable
- Understandable
- Robust
Perceivable
This means eliminating anything that may prevent someone from gaining access to your content.
It is necessary to make websites accessible to people who use screen readers by providing textual substitutes and an organized organization.
Operable
The main emphasis of the website should be placed on its user interface and manner of navigating. In order to be successful, it must be able to be accessible to everyone regardless of the device they are using to access it.
Giving users sufficient time to accomplish any activity is part of this.
Understandable
It is essential that web surfers comprehend the data shown on a page and have a clear idea of how the user interface works, so they can move around the website.
This includes having a predictable and consistent navigation.
Robust
For a website to be strong and reliable, it must be functional and legible from any type of device or software, such as a screen reader.
It has to be available and reachable while any changes are made to the different systems.
The Intersection of SEO & Accessibility
We devote our SEO activities primarily to making sure that sites can be found by search engines, but much of what we focus on also influences the usability of the website for people.
In February of 2020, the WAVE accessibility engine of Web Aim was employed to analyze the DOM of all pages when scripts and styles were executed, in order to detect hindrances to practical accessibility and WCAG blockades.
The research demonstrated that nearly all homepages and nearly all deeper content pages had some type of failure when evaluated against the WCAG standards.
The biggest reasons why these were unsuccessful were due to lack of contrast between words, absent alternative text, and hyperlinks containing no content.
We have direct control over two of these three factors:
- Alt text
- Empty links.
Considering this, we should consider the connections between organic search and inclusiveness, and talk about how we can influence things favorably due to our efforts.
1. Page Titles
Page titles are employed to give context and enlighten users on the subject of the page. Additionally, these titles will appear as the main headlines in search engine results.
Titles play an important role for users to recognize if the content of a page is related to them. In addition, when multiple pages or tabs are open simultaneously, titles can be used to distinguish them. A screen reader will use the titles of pages to tell users what content they are navigating through as they move from one page to another.
Creating web page titles with the potential user in thought, rather than just to game search engine algorithms, is an effective way to balance search engine optimization and accessibility.
2. Headings
With SEO, the primary focus is on the H1 tag to give a general summary of the primary material on the page, with H2-H6 labels employed to go into greater detail about the formation of the page.
It is essential to abide by the same principles of SEO when using heading tags for accessibility, such as using a single H1 and making sure each heading accurately reflects the information that follows. Furthermore, headings should only be used if there is some content following them.
3. Sitemaps
Having a sitemap on the actual website is advantageous for all viewers trying to find the desired information, particularly if the website has a complicated structure.
They are especially significant for assisting people with disabilities because they give a general viewpoint and smooth access to all essential segments of the website.
In addition, for SEO functions, sitemaps are beneficial in helping search engine spiders uncover links to other pages on the website which may not be accessible through the other components of the site.
4. Anchor Text
The anchor text is a phrase or word which serves to provide information about the page that is being linked to. It conveys the topic of the page which, when clicked on, the user will be directed to. This can give an overview of what the page is about, allowing people to decide if they should go to the related page or not.
Generally speaking, when users utilize a screen reader to move through a page, the device will provide feedback when it reaches a link, telling the user the anchor text before proceeding.
People will press enter if they decide the link presented will be helpful.
Search engines use the words within a hyperlink (known as “anchor text”) to get a better understanding of what the linked page is about and its context.
Also, having the connection inside the phrase gives both website optimization and ease-of-use advantages.
5. Breadcrumb Links
Breadcrumbs act as a secondary way of navigating, which allows the user to retrace their steps to wherever they started or to the top content. Additionally, it can help them see the path that was taken to get to their current page.
Traceable links, commonly called breadcrumbs, are utilized to illustrate to robots and screen readers the structure of a website.
Using internal links is an effective method of enhancing a website, notably for structures with intricate navigation on extensive websites.
It’s important to make sure that breadcrumbs can be easily accessed by everyone. This means making sure that they are located in the same place throughout the website.
