Your Complete Guide to Digital Accessibility

Introduction

Our world has become digital. Everything is at one’s fingertips. It is becoming important that everyone should be able to function with online procedures. Hence, digital accessibility is more than a legal necessity. It has become a moral action for every service out there. Let us delve into the essentials of digital accessibility, also known as web accessibility in this blog.

What is Digital Accessibility?

The core meaning of web accessibility is that all digital platforms are accessible to everyone. This includes people with sensory, motor and cognitive disabilities. The primary beneficiaries of digital accessibility for people with disabilities are disabled people and the elderly. Various examples of digital accessibility are speech-to-text commands, captions for video content, alt texts in images, etc. If you wish to improve your understanding of web accessibility then you can enroll in our digital accessibility online course.

Important principles of Digital Accessibility

1. Perceivable

   Content should be easily comprehensible to everyone. For instance, provide text alternatives for non-text content.

2. Usable

   Users should be able to navigate the digital service easily. This can be through keyboard shortcuts, AI assistants, etc.

3. Understandable

   Information should be simple for everyone to understand in the intended way.

4. Robust

   Content should include everything about current and future trends. This will make content useful for longer durations.

Common Barriers to Digital Accessibility

1. Visual barriers

   Poor colour contrast, small text sizes, etc can make it difficult for users to read your content.

2. Auditory barriers

   Lack of captions, transcripts, poor audio quality, etc can affect a wide number of disabled people.

3. Motor barriers

   Difficult-to-navigate user interface can be challenging for people with limited motor skills.

4. Cognitive impairments

   Things like complex language and vague instructions can confuse users. Thus, making the process difficult or unusable.

5. Technological barriers

   Incompatibility between your content and assistive technology can create difficulties for the users.

6. Knowledge barriers

   People can be unaware of the challenges and needs for web accessibility. Enrolling in a digital accessibility online course, reading on the topic, and interactions with disabled people can help with this.

How to Implement Digital Accessibility

A few practices that can be followed to increase web accessibility are:

1. Add Alt texts

   Provide alt texts for visual content to aid users with visual impairments.

2. Keyboard Navigation

   Make sure all content is navigable via keyboard.

3. Captions & Transcripts

   Add captions for videos and transcripts for audio content.

4. Colour Contrast and Text Size

   Choose high-contrast colour combinations which can make the details differentiable from each other. Allowing users to adjust text size can help them read more comfortably.

5. Accessible Forms and Buttons

   Use easy-to-navigate designs for forms and buttons.

6. Test for Accessibility

   Make people with impairments a part of the process. You can also use tools like WAVE, Axe or Lighthouse to test your content.

Benefits of Digital Accessibility

Implementing web accessibility practices brings immense benefits to everyone:

1. Increased Audience Reach

   Accessible content has a wider audience base. This increases views, shares and engagement which in turn pulls even more audience.

2. Improved SEO

   As your website receives more engagement it conveys to the algorithm that it is user-friendly. This can make it rank higher on SEO.

3. Enhanced User Experience

   An accessible website benefits everyone as it makes the experience smoother and easier.

4. Legal Compliance

   Ensuring web accessibility can help you avoid any legal issues. Discrimination against people against the law in most places across the globe.

5. Positive brand image

   Your commitment to making your audience’s life easier garners their loyalty and trust. This creates a positive brand perception.

Real-World Examples of Digital Accessibility

Conclusion