How to improve website accessibility

22 August 2022

When you are designing a website, there are several very important factors that you have to bear in mind, in order to ensure that the site is as functional and usable as possible. One of the main factors to consider is something called accessibility. Many of us are used to thinking about accessibility in other areas of work and life, and it’s something that applies here too. In simple terms, this is all about making your website as accessible and usable as possible by as many people as possible.

As long as you have done that, you’ll have a much more democratically available website, and a more successful one for that. Here are some of the best ways to improve website accessibility that you might want to take on board.

Ensure You Have Enough Contrast
One of the first things to think about here is the contrast of colours on your site. That is important because people with colour-blindness make use of contrast to be able to tell apart different sections of the site, and without enough contrast this is simply impossible. There is a standard minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 which will provide enough contrast for those with impaired vision, so that is something to look into throughout your website.

Be Careful With Fonts
Font choice is always tricky, but if you are trying to be inclusive and to ensure your site is fully accessible to all, then this is something that you will need to look into even more fully. In particular, it’s wise to avoid fonts that are overly decorative, such as the Serifs, because these can cause problems for readers with dyslexia and other similar difficulties. You should also make sure that you are not using font sizes smaller than about 12pt, as that might prove tricky for some readers.

Use Alt Tags
If you are not already, you should make sure that you are providing alt tags for each of your images. These are essentially small captions that detail what the image is, in as much detail as possible as to grasp the meaning of the image without having to see it. These are used to describe images for those users who use screen readers due to being visually impaired in some way or another. So it is a very simple and highly effective way to ensure you are being inclusive of those people.

Look At Your Structure
The structure of each page in HTML terms needs to be clear and to be marked up properly, because screen readers make use of those HTML tags to present content. So if this is not done properly, those readers are not going to display the content correctly. You should make sure to get the HTML structure right on each and every page.

If you have done those few simple things, your website is going to be a lot more accessible, and you will find that your visitors can make use of and enjoy the site a lot more easily.