The Era of the Inaccessible Website Has Passed
We've all visited websites that are a nightmare to use. Maybe you're bombarded with popups; the content is shifting around because the site is trying to load more ads, or it just keeps crashing and reloading. It's inconvenient but widely accepted as part of the internet experience.
Consider yourself one of the one in every seven people worldwide who have a disability. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 15% of the global population has a disability, and poorly designed websites can completely exclude people with disabilities by being completely inaccessible.
This includes copy written in unreadable fonts that blends chameleon-like into the website's background or has labyrinthine sentence structures.
Screen readers can't describe images with no alt text, videos without captions, and links without indicating where they'll take you.
Or colour contrasts that make distinguishing website elements impossible, and businesses that only provide one contact method.
While poorly designed websites are simply a source of frustration for many people, they can prevent people with disabilities from completing simple online tasks entirely.
Even though it feels like a relic from the early days of the internet, most UK websites are still designed and developed without regard for people with disabilities, according to the web accessibility agency KreativeInc.
WebAIM's 2021 study found that less than 3% of the world's top *one million* websites provide full accessibility. According to the same survey, there are an average of 51 accessibility errors on website homepages.
There have been some success stories of accessibility campaigners taking on large corporations, but progress has been slow.
A blind user took Coles to court after finding online shopping through their site nearly impossible. A 10-year dialogue with the company resulted in Coles improving their website's accessibility to the point where the same user nominated Coles for a national accessibility award, which they duly won.
In the digital industry, there is a growing sense that a collective stance is being taken: inaccessible sites are no longer acceptable. Even within the last year, the average number of presentations uploaded daily that reference web accessibility has increased from 5.9 to 8.8 on the presentations hub Slideshare.
It helps that industry titans are finally pitching in to help lead the charge. Twitter and Linkedin have recently added alt text features for images. Microsoft is launching a campaign to increase alt text adoption, like closed captioning provision for videos has increased.
As a digital agency, Evoluted takes seriously its responsibility to lead education about website best practices. They've released a comprehensive free guide to website UX this month, focusing heavily on improving accessibility and practical tips for providing a better user experience. They want brands and individuals to use it to make their websites more accessible to everyone.
The rise of Web 3.0 appears to be the ideal opportunity to leave inaccessible websites in the past, resulting in a better, more inclusive internet.
As digital agencies, we have the opportunity to lead from the front, demonstrating to our clients how to make their sites more accessible and explain their importance, as well as educating the broader industry through our expertise.
3 Easy Ways to Improve Your Website's Accessibility:
Examine your colour contrast: Check that the text is readable against the background you've chosen - poor colour contrasts can render websites mainly inaccessible to visually impaired users.
To ensure that standard text is easy to read, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines recommend a colour contrast ratio of 4.5:1. The standard is at least 3:1 for larger text, graphics, or UI components. If you're not sure how to calculate contrast ratios, there are free tools that will do it for you after you enter the hex codes.
Allow your words to speak for themselves: Short, clear sentences written for humans rather than search engines are essential. Writing in this manner makes your content much easier to understand for people with learning or cognitive disabilities and non-native speakers of the language you are writing.
Consider your font selection as well; the aesthetic benefits of a unique font style are lost if users struggle to read your copy.
Make sure everyone can enjoy your multimedia content by captioning it:
Captions have been shown to increase engagement and watch time in videos; however, there are many reasons why people may prefer to watch videos without sound, such as if they are watching in a noisy environment without headphones. You can generate captions using free tools.
It is also necessary to explain what your images depict. This is accomplished by using alt text, a description browsers can read aloud to visually impaired users.
AXISMOBI AND SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING STRATEGY:Twitter and LinkedIn have added the ability to add image alt text. Microsoft Edge is leading a campaign to increase global alt text use, and email providers are expected to add it soon.
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