When you tackle a website project — a new site or a redesign — web accessibility must be a top priority. By federal law, websites must be usable and accessible by people with disabilities. In reality, it can be challenging to ensure a website is compliant, but advancements in design and planning are making this process easier.
At Sanmita, we are committed to accessible design and our work complies with all mandates. Our exclusive AcademicsWeb content management system (CMS) is Section 508 (ADA) compliant and web standards compliant.
Increasingly, accessible design is regarded as high-quality design because it emphasizes a clean look and usable, thoughtful navigation. Responsive design, which allows websites to adjust to any screen size and any type of device, helps with accessibility as well. (That’s just one of the many reasons we advocate for responsive design.)
But achieving accessibility can be challenging, particularly for sites with many levels of content and features. So what can you do to see if your website complies? Here are some ideas:
- Testing is key. Test every feature and every page. Use free online testing tools. On www.wave.webaim.org, there is a color-coded guide to see what complies, what does not and any errors.
- Bring in real people to test your website with assistive technology. Testing software is helpful, but it is very informative to see how individuals with disabilities navigate your site and get their feedback.
- Visit youtube.com to see videos of individuals with disabilities trying to navigate non-accessible sites. See where they are having difficulties and compare it to your site.
- Check multimedia for captioning for audio-impaired and audio-only content for visually-impaired.
- Use descriptive language for links. Rather than “read more”, offer a short headline that explains the content so a screen-reader can guide the user with useful language.
- Underline links so they are clearly differentiated from content.
- Make sure your animated or scrolling features can be stopped, so a user can control the flow of information.
- Avoid strobbing content, fuzzy fonts and textured backgrounds, all of which can be difficult to see and read.
For more information on web accessiblity, visit the Web Accessibility Initiative, www.W3.org