Web Accessibility for CHASE Networks
Why Web Accessibility?
The use of the internet has become unavoidable for communications and research, which means accessibility on the web is more important than ever to ensure everyone has a chance to participate. By law, public sector websites in the UK must meet the standards set by the Central Digital and Data Office. Elsewhere, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has standardised guidelines for helping developers and designers create a more accessible web by taking down access barriers.
Even if your website is not strictly required to meet these regulations, you should endeavour to make your content as accessible as possible, so that your website will be more inclusive by minimising the number of users who might have trouble navigating your website or accessing your content. This means taking into account the various tools used by those with specific impairments, such as screen readers for the visually impaired or keyboard functionality and voice command for those with mobility limitations.
Making your website accessible not only benefits the community of web users at large: it also benefits your cause, by helping you rank higher on search engines and widening the number of people who are able to engage with your network. And, above all, it’s just nice to care for others with small alterations that can make a huge impact.
How to make websites more accessible - without code
There are a few ways you can make your website more accessible without expert knowledge of web design and coding. Depending on the content management system (CMS) you use, it may be worth seeing if they have accessibility guides specific to their platform. Some CMSs are already designed with accessibility in mind, while others might have easy-to-install plugins for accessibility. The following are accessibility guidelines from a few of the most popular CMS’s that you may be using:
Regardless of which CMS you use, there are a few key easy-to-complete steps to consider that will bring you closer to a fully accessibly website.
Make your website mobile-friendly
It is estimated that the number of those who use mobile phones to access websites is roughly the same as the number of those who use desktops, so it’s advisable to ensure that your website is mobile-friendly. A quick way to do this is to simply head to your website using a smartphone.
This is also important because not everyone has access to a personal desktop. By ensuring that your website is mobile-friendly, you’re helping those with lower income or other accessibility issues to access your content and participate in your network.
Alt text for images, links, videos
Alt text is a text that describes various elements on a web page. It is usually written in plain English and won’t be visible on the user-facing page. Instead, it is read by virtual machines such as screen readers or web crawlers. Most web providers and CMSs will give you the option to add alt text to the elements on your page, and it’s up to you to add the text. That means for every image, you should write a description that would adequately help someone who can’t see the image understand it.
Use headings correctly
Headings aren’t just a way to change the size of your fonts. They also help assistive technologies operate by communicating the element type of a text. Because of this, headings should be used as they were designed: as headings. For non-heading text, use regular paragraphs.
Headings should also be nested properly, meaning H1 should always come before H2 and so on. Otherwise, assistive technologies might misinterpret your text, making such technologies more difficult to use.
Choose fonts and colours with care
What might be considered purely aesthetic is so much more. Some fonts are less readable than others, while some colours are more difficult to discern for those who are colour blind. Because of this, when choosing colours for text and backgrounds, it is important to have a high enough contrast ratio so that anyone can read the text. Likewise, fonts that are more legible not only give a better user experience, it also means more people can engage with your content.
While there is no universally “best” font, some principles to take into account is to stick to fonts that don’t have ambiguities and that are of a neutral weight (so not too thin and not too bold). You can learn more about fonts on the Web Accessibility in Mind organisation font page, and you can also use their contrast checker to ensure that your contrast ratio is high enough.
Be wary of flashing imagery
If you display GIFs or other animation with a lot of flash imagery, you could be putting those with epilepsy at risk. When in doubt, either put a warning before the flashing occurs or avoid it altogether.
Content warnings for sensitive topics
Certain topics might be uncomfortable for readers to engage with. At its extreme, they can initiate episodes of PTSD or other adverse reactions. It takes very little to place a warning ahead of content, and doing so might be protecting someone from harm.
Responsiveness
A responsive website is a website that will change the configuration of its elements according to the size of the screen used. This also means that if users zoom in, the text should rearrange themselves within a page and continue to be readable. Users should be able to zoom in on your text up to 300% without the text spilling, so that those who require larger font sizes will be able to have a smooth experience with your content.
Other things to look out for:
Can your website be navigated using a keyboard or speech recognition software?
Is your content in easy-to-understand language?
Are the fields in your form labelled correctly, so that one can use a screen reader to understand how to use the form?
Are the tables you're using suited to the content, so as to not confuse screen readers and other assistive technologies?
Does your video content have subtitles?