Simple accessibility and your website

Website accessibility is about making use easier for people with disabilities, especially those related to eyesight. This article is not about the technical aspects of how to use html and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) but about the simple non-technical things that can help make a difference.

Links

One of the most common errors on a website is the use of ‘Click here’. This should be avoided because people using screen readers (computers that read out what is on the screen to visually-impaired people) will hear a list of the links that are on the page, and ‘click here’ is meaningless on its own.

Consider these two sentences:For our 2010 prices click here

andDetails of our 2010 prices

“Details of our 2010 prices” is meaningful, whereas “click here” is not. Careful wording of the content of a webpage can make a big difference and can usually be achieved with minimal cost.

Colour

Another aspect to consider when designing a webpage is colour. The colour scheme of a website can be used with rather disastrous effect, as exemplified by numerous websites out there, and it is often best to keep things simple – say black text on a white background, which is a colour scheme that never goes out of fashion and is easiest for everyone to read.

It is important to maintain the contrast between the text and the background and try to avoid placing text over a picture or design, which will make it a lot less easy to read. It might look good, but the purpose of the site is to communicate and looking good at the expense of readability is in nobody’s interests.

Similarly, when thinking about colours, remember that not everyone can distinguish colours very well so do not rely on colour for readability. For example, it would be a mistake to put your prices in different colours for different periods in the year and assume that all the people reading it could follow. Of course, using colours is fine but you should make sure that there is another clear way to see the information.

Flashing text and moving images

Another feature to avoid is flashing text. Despite what you may think, it is not necessarily good design as it lends a rather amateurish look to a website; but more importantly, it can be difficult to read and therefore reduces accessibility. You can emphasise a key point by using bold text just as well.

The same goes for animated pictures, i.e. moving images, which are usually more of a gimmick than a useful addition to a website. Customers come to your site to find out about having a holiday, not to look at the pictures, and moving images take longer to load, slowing down the whole website; notwithstanding the fact that they can cause issues with some visually-impaired customers. They are very seldom really necessary.

Page titles

On a slightly more technical note, make sure every page has a page title, and that the section headings are structured in a logical way. Make sure all your pictures have an ‘Alt tag’ or a text description that describes the picture. For example “Picture of Rose Cottage” is meaningless while “Brick-built cottage with flowers on front wall and pitched roof” is a lot more helpful.

Usability guidelines

This is just a brief introduction to accessible design and there is a lot more to study if you do your own website. And if you pay a designer, tell him or her that you want the W3C Web Content Accessibility guidelines to be followed. If he or she looks blank, find another designer!

Further information

For further reading, see our How to be a Web-Savvy Accommodation Business book.