In
recent times, architecting an impeccable and high-performing website is not the
only aspect that needs to be considered while developing a website. Businesses
must also ensure that their website is accessible by all kinds of users. It
must be kept in mind that apart from the regular users, there is a chunk of users
with connectivity woes/bandwidth limitations, disabilities, and situational
limitations. Such unavoidable factors affect web accessibility. Therefore,
designing a website that provides equal access to all is crucial. However, most
web designers, and web app developers tend to
overlook this aspect. This causes accessing difficulties for non-traditional web
users and also affects the website’s profitability to some extent.
On
the other hand, good accessibility to the website enhances its usability,
broadens the customer base, and comes with loads of commercial benefits.
Besides, website accessibility has become a legal and regulatory requirement these
days.
But
still, owners and website developers
are clueless on how to implement and validate a website’s accessibility.
Fortunately, several tools and resources are available to solve this problem.
This article enlists ingenious techniques to identify and fix common website accessibility issues.
So
let’s commence!
Common Website Accessibility Issues and Possible Fixes
Text with Low
Color Contrast
Text
with low color contrast is the commonest accessibility issue encountered by
most websites and poses problems for users with color blindness or poor vision.
The standard contrast ratio on typical text, set by the Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 is 4:5:1.
Color
contrast checker, an accessibility testing tool, can be used to ensure that the
contrast between the text and elements such as background or highlight is as
per the set user requirements. Another tool, WebAIM’s color checker, helps to display
the effects of unacceptable and acceptable contrast levels.
Absence of
keyboard-friendliness
Due
to the inability, non-availability of the option, or personal preferences, many
people use keyboard emulators, keyboards, or other input devices instead of a
mouse for navigating the web. So, every functionality, control, and link meant
to be controlled by a mouse should be accessible with a keyboard alone.
For
testing a website’s keyboard-friendliness, the web developers can use common commands like the Shift-Tab and Tab keys.
Absence of
Alternate Text on images
Some
of the Users access the web via refreshable Braille display or screen readers.
These tools are unable to interpret or communicate any images or graphics
without alt text. So, all non-text content and images should possess text
alternatives.
This
issue can be resolved by making sure that all images are imparted with simple
and clear alt text when videos are uploaded on the website.
Videos
without closed captions and transcripts
Transcripts,
closed captions, relevant sounds, spoken dialogues, music, etc. are a must for
accessing and understanding videos. If not present, they may cause accessibility
issues, especially for users with hearing impairment or people in noisy places.
Website
owners should ensure the availability of an option or a button to activate
closed captions and ensure that the button can be operated using both- keyboard
and mouse. Also, they should ensure that the transcript is being accompanied by
the video.
Incorrect
Heading Hierarchy and Semantic Markup
Web
users who use headers for navigating between the sections find it confusing and
are unable to comprehend the context properly if the website has a wrong
logical structure or the heading hierarchy is incorrect. Also, other elements
of the website such as tables, emphasized text, lists, etc. should possess a
clear HTML markup to help screen readers.
Loss of
content or function on being zoomed
As
per the WCAG guidelines, the website content should work without the need for
employing assistive technology even if it is zoomed to 200%. For testing this
aspect, web developers need to
zoom the web browser up to 200% and then check the content and the webpage’s
layout. At this time, the content elements should not disappear or overlap, the
menus and navigation elements should function properly and the page should be
navigable using both- mouse and keyboard.
Absence of
link text
The
absence of link text implies that no text is used for representing a hyperlink.
This poses challenges especially to the users who can’t see the site properly
and make use of screen readers. The reason is that the screen readers are
unable to interpret it as a proper link.
This
issue can be resolved either by using alt text to represent the link or by
hyperlinking the applicable text.
Extra navigational
links
If
too many navigational links are present in a website, the screen readers or other
such assisting devices encounter problems while clicking the links to reach the
main site. For this issue, the remedies are the usage of search bars, and
sub-navigations or providing users the option of skipping navigational links.
Vacant Form
Labels
Forms
are crucial in websites but they come with several accessibility issues. For
instance, form labels inform the screen readers and the users about the
information needed by the form field. These labels may not be readable always
and could pose problems for assistive devices.
So,
the website developers must
thoroughly examine the forms and make sure that the form inputs and labels are
clear and simple.
Final Verdict
The aforesaid checklist covers
the key website accessibility issues with their solutions and suits the needs
of all types of websites. Resolving the major accessibility issues will prove extremely
profitable for your enterprise.
Looking for some
assistance to resolve website accessibility issues? Reach out to Biz4Solutions,
a distinguished mobile and
web app development company, and a reliable technology partner providing
outstanding services to global clients. Write to us at sales.enquiry@biz4solutions.com for more details.
To know more
about our other core technologies, refer to links below:
React
Native App Development Company
Angular
App Development Company
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