May 19th is Global Accessibility Awareness Day! This day was created to raise awareness for digital access and inclusion for people with disabilities. Groove Digital likes to take a moment on this day through this blog.
The internet is often seen as an accessible medium, and rightly so. Unfortunately, not everyone has the full experience on websites. Millions of Dutch people have one or more disabilities. Think, for example, of people who are blind, visually impaired, or color blind. The Dutch government has written a full page about what digital accessibility is and what the guidelines are.
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Web accessibility includes all disabilities that affect access to the Web, including:
- Auditory
- Cognitive
- Neurological
- Physical
- Speech
- Visual
How do you make a website digitally accessible? Groove Digital provides three basic tips!
- Add a text alternative to an image, also known as (alt text). This can be used on your website as well.
- Use contrasting colors
- No 404 pages
Here is an overview of tools you can use to test if your website is accessible enough.
Other Tools:
The hashtag #A11y is very valuable when searching for information, tips, and tricks about accessibility.
#A11y is another way to write the word 'accessibility'. It's a shortened version for Twitter and other social networking sites that limit the number of characters. '
A' is the first letter; there are 11 letters in between, and 'y' at the end. Add the hash label and you have #a11y, although the use of "a11y" to abbreviate the word is also used outside of social media.
Through research of the hashtag, we found a good tip for both site owners and app developers:
“When using default sounds in your application, make sure you allow your users to change them to their liking or needs.” — Andre Louis (musician, tech-lover, self-proclaimed geek)"
Notifications
If you choose to use default sounds/alerts in your application, ensure for accessibility purposes that the user can customize them. Users should be able to choose to make one notification sound more important than another. Also, it's preferable to make sounds with higher frequency (like WhatsApp, Facebook, or Twitter notifications) shorter than those of push notifications that occur much less frequently.
Clearing barriers to technology step by step. We found this quote fitting;
"Accessibility is a continuum. It's not about compliance. It's something that can always be improved, just like website performance or conversions. It's about continual progress." ~ Ronnie Burt
Need help creating a website? Groove Digital is here for you.
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