One of the purposes of the world wide web was to help people to search and share information. Since it’s inception, the Web is being used for numerous purposes like social networking, sharing data, pictures, videos, etc. Website accessibility is crucial because it is about making the web accessible for all people which includes those with visual or auditory impairments.
Even though many people cannot use pictures, video clips, sounds, applets, etc directly, they may still use pages that includeEven though many people cannot use pictures, video clips, sounds, applets, etc directly, they may still use pages that include equivalent information. As sites become more interactive and more visual, sites also need to become easier for screen readers to read. There are a number of tools and services available to help increase the accessibility of web sites – these include web development suites and accessibility checkers. Net accessibility is now a common concern for online marketers. Companies have an enormous chance to increase product sales by implementing some basic web accessibility strategies. Creating web pages with web accessibility at heart can also help with site SEO because it makes it easier for computers to interpret the web page.
To improve the accessibilty of your site there are a few straightforward principles to observe. You will see just how similar to Search engine optimization best-practices these principles are.
- Inclusion of descriptive alternative text for images is great starting point to improve the accessibility of a web site. For instance, the text equal of an up arrow that links to a table of contents could be “Go to the table of contents”. In some cases an equivalent might describe the appearance of visual content or the sound of auditory information.
- Both accessibility and Search engine optimization principles state alternative text should not be used for decorative images.
- It’s a good practice not to utilize generic linking text like ‘click here’ and ‘this site’ since it will be difficult for screen readers to interpret the hyperlink context.
- The web page title tag is also essential to both accessibility and Search engine optimization – it should convey the purpose of the page to the viewer.
- Header (H) tags should be used to describe a page (H1) or new sections or subsections (H2-H6) both for accessibility and Search engine optimization.
- Every web page should be analyzed without JavaScript and CSS, and should be created in such a way that a screen reader reads a page (think top to bottom)
- Every web page should have proper META tags specified (econding, language).
- And each web page should pass HTML validation.
Of course there are many more things one can do to help make websites 100% accessible, however with these simple steps we’ll have a good base to build on for website accessibility.