Make Website Content More Accessible With These Tips on Accessibility

At its best, the web makes it easier for people to share, collaborate, and provide new opportunities for all. But for the web to truly achieve its collaborative potential, online documents and software must be accessible to all users, including those using assistive devices.

The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilites Act (AODA) requires that Ontario public sector organizations and businesses with more than 50 employees make their websites accessible by January 1, 2021. To comply, websites, applications, and digital documents must meet the technical requirements of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. 

However, many websites and documents still do not meet these requirements.  Below are some tips on how to ensure that your content is accessible, so that users with diverse abilities can:

  • perceive and understand the content they are viewing
  • navigate and interact with the Web in a meaningful way

There are many steps involved in making accessible content, such as using the correct style for font and spacing, creating alt text for images, creating meaningful hyperlinks, formatting tables and charts and more. By taking these steps, you make your content more accessible for everyone, including those with disabilities.

Some things to consider:

  • Beware of broken links. Make sure to update your website regularly, and search for links that do not lead anywhere.
     
  • Use meaningful link text. Instead of using text like “click here” for hyperlinks, use the name of the document or webpage the link will take users to. This makes it easier for people with assistive devices to scan and select links. Screen readers organize hyperlinks into a list by their name, and if all hyperlinks are named “here” they are impossible to distinguish from one another.
     
  • Use headings and styles. Adding headings makes your document easy to navigate and enables a screen reader device to notify the user that they are entering a new section of the document.
     
  • Write in plain language. Even expert users appreciate clear, simple explanations that are easy to understand on first reading. Use everyday language that the general population can understand, and avoid using complex words or jargon.
     
  • Provide alt text for images. Images, charts and graphics all require alt text, which is a description of what a image, chart, or graphic looks like. Screen reader devices detect alt text and enable users with vision disabilities to understand the information the image provides. If an image is only decorative, this can be indicated in the alt tag, and a screen reader will skip over it, saving time for the reader.

Find out more here: Website Accessibility - University of Guelph