Discover accessibility in web design

Normally, people do not know how to differentiate some important concepts in the topic of web accessibility, such as the role of HTML, CSS and JavaScript. In short, HTML defines what the structure of your web page will be; CSS defines how the content of your web page is displayed and JavaScript helps you insert dynamic functionality into your page. Screen readers usually work with HTML. Many of the filler elements that you include in your content, to promote SEO and produce quality content, are not visible to screen readers using CSS. Although this doesn’t mean you should leave them behind. The option is to add hidden content in CSS so that screen readers can pinpoint it. To use JavaScript the output must be both HTML and CSS, although you should not embed CSS or JavaScript code in HTML.

Colors play a vital role in web design and content, especially if you want to make your content more readable and accessible to those who have visual problems, browse in low light, have limited vision or are color blind. It is good that you play with the color of the text and the color of the background. You need there to be a strong contrast between the color of the text and the background, so the most practical thing is to choose black text on a white background.

Not only do you have to play with the color of the text, but add patterns, shapes and emphasis where possible, as this makes your texts more readable and allows those with vision problems to read and understand the contents.

Headers should be a safe bet in all content, as they allow information to be better organized and provide hierarchy data to readers. Thus, a screen reader can more easily navigate through all the content and know its order of importance. If you also include a table of contents in them, you will be giving them more help. Choose H1, H2, H3 formats, and as many subtitles as you need so that your content is well organized and more accessible to everyone.

Lists are your best ally for listing and numbering voluminous content, I don’t know why many people find it so difficult to use them! Perhaps it is out of fear or because they believe that these do not add value to their content. I encourage you to start including lists in all content, whenever you consider it necessary, if you want to make your content more readable and improve the accessibility of your website. You can use lists with shapes (bullet points) or with numbers. You will see that these make your content more organized and you will obtain better results.

Menus are always good for organizing the elements and content of a website, but not everyone takes advantage of them, so you should clean them, well, not literally! But yes to showing them effectively. For example, some visual cues would come in handy in your menus, to emphasize and highlight them. Don’t use scroll states to reveal content, nor clutter the menu with endless options, but be specific. Remember, the idea of ​​menus is to make the information more dynamic and punctual; Don’t abuse them or saturate your page with menus left and right.

When designing the fields of a form, the text entries, you must prioritize contrast, which I already told you about before, so you have to maintain a high contrast so that the text is readable and the reader can see which parts they click on. Adding a fill color or a border helps a lot, and is essential to highlight important text or words that lead to a link. You have to be very tactful when designing the anatomy of your text entries, because this way you will be able to make your content more readable and you will help your readers not to confuse the texts with the background, when trying to click on them.

The images, graphics and tables that you include in your content are not for decoration; Or at least it shouldn’t be like that! Alt text in these elements can do a lot more for you than you realize, such as making screen readers understand what the photo or graphic you’ve added to textual content is about. If you provide alternative text in all your images, graphs, charts and tables, you will be favoring those who have visual problems and, in addition, you will be improving your SEO, did you know? Check out these SEO tips for images that actually work.

Media files are a great form of content these days; They are dynamic, modern, versatile and adapt to the needs of each person, even when they have disabilities. To make your website more accessible, you can add subtitles or transcripts to your videos, and share multimedia material through various means, not just videos. Transcriptions bring you closer to users with sound problems, those who do not speak the same language as you, or people with difficulty hearing.

Who goes down a path without knowing where they are going? Nobody! And it is no different when it comes to linking your web content from other texts, so one way to make them more accessible is by adding context and opting for a descriptive link. Internal and external linking is important for your website’s SEO, so take advantage of this to strengthen your SEO while supporting your screen readers. You need to shed light on what you’re linking to and allow them to scan to see if they really want to go where you’re directing them. So you should learn about Linkbuilding strategies and SEO optimization.

User interface elements can be a web designer’s dream, as there is the possibility of creating something new, modern and authentic, but the idea is to maintain balance and design functional elements. To ensure the accessibility of a website you must keep things simple and practical, establishing user interface elements that are actually useful for the majority and not elitist, and aimed only at a small group. Remember, the main idea of ​​accessibility is that the web works for everyone and in every possible way. Don’t forget anyone!

User interface elements can be a web designer’s dream, as there is the possibility of creating something new, modern and authentic, but the idea is to maintain balance and design functional elements. To ensure the accessibility of a website you must keep things simple and practical, establishing user interface elements that are actually useful for the majority and not elitist, and aimed only at a small group. Remember, the main idea of ​​accessibility is that the web works for everyone and in every possible way. Don’t forget anyone!

I have already highlighted the importance of using headers and structuring the contents of your page well, so that people who use screen readers can hear the information better and understand it. Headings have to be seen as labels that define what style and purpose a text will have, so take advantage of it and create real headings. You don’t just create them to create them, or to obey a style. Accessibility will depend on the structure and components of a page, so you must choose the correct bookmarks; Sometimes it will be more useful to use HTML markups, but other times it won’t, so you should evaluate this and take action.

It is not feasible to capitalize all words, even to highlight important things, as the screen reader processes capital letters as individual letters, so it will read letter by letter when it comes across words written entirely in capital letters.

Alright, let’s review. What have we been talking about? To be accessible to everyone! Well, there is no point in making external links to sites that are not accessible. It would be like contradicting ourselves! Be careful with each external link that you provide to your readers, because if they lead to web pages that are not accessible, you are improving your website in vain.

Keyboard accessibility is essential to ensure that your website is accessible to anyone with motor or visual disabilities. You have to make sure that your website is navigable only with a keyboard by testing. If all the interactive elements of your page, such as posts, links and buttons, can be navigated without a mouse, that means that your company’s web accessibility is going from strength to strength. Of course, try not to overuse the interactive elements and menus, because although your readers can discover them only with the tab and enter keys, it could be overwhelming for them to have to deal with numerous options at the same time.