Around one billion people on the planet have some sort of disability – that is almost an eighth of the world population. As well as people with disabilities, symptoms of aging can also result in the deterioration of people’s senses, motor skills and cognitive abilities.
When you are designing a website, it is important to make sure that it is accessible to as many users as possible. There are plenty of ways that you can optimize your website design to make it more appealing and intuitive to people with disabilities. Read on to explore some of the best ways to make your website more accessible.
Avoid bright or hard-to-read colours
While it can be tempting to go for bold and bright colours, this can make it more difficult or many people to read. Certain colour combinations, such as yellow and blue, can make reading difficult for people who suffer from colour blindness. For most people, simple black text over a white background is the most versatile and comfortable combination, and this is why it remains standard practice.
Use subtitles in video content
Many people are deaf or hard of hearing. While this isn’t so much of an issue when it comes to reading, this can mean that video content can often be inaccessible. If you host video content on your website, you should add subtitles. If you are hosting live video content such as webinars, you can use CART (communication access real-time translation) services to make this content accessible to users who are heard of hearing. There are plenty of CART services that you can choose from to help you. You can also create transcripts of your videos so that people can read them in their own time.
Use clear fonts and large text
Internet users who have problems with their eyesight can often struggle to read small text. Although there is an option to change the screen and/or text size in most internet browsers, may people do not know how to do this, or will instead just leave your site! Make sure that your text is of a readable size and in a clear font. There are many fonts that you can choose from, but the simple ones are usually the best.
It is not just font types and text size that affect readability. Splitting up your text into smaller paragraphs can make it easier to digest, not just for people with disabilities, but for all readers!
Features that are clickable should be clickable!
Some visitors to your site may have issues with mobility. For these users, trying to click on small buttons can be difficult, uncomfortable and even painful. If your website has buttons or text that can be clicked on to navigate to other areas of the site or to external links, they should be easy to see and easy to click on.
Make use of alt tags
Alt tags are the small labels that are displayed when you hover the cursor over an image. For blind or partially sighted users who use screen-reader software, alt tags can be a way for them to understand what the image is displaying.
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