March 29, 2024

Understanding the interplay between web accessibility and user experience (UX) is the key to designing websites that can provide proper access and good UX to people with disabilities. . The relationship between UX and conformance to WCAG 2.0 is becoming all the more elusive today.  With the assistance of companies like AccessiBe, one can create accessible website that makes sure that people, regardless of their physical or mental limitations, are able to obtain the information they require and communicate with the organization like the rest of the world.

When it comes to website design, most people first think of aesthetics.  Of course, aesthetics are crucial to a website. To magnetize more visitors, one would need to have beautiful graphics, buttons, fonts and other visual elements on their website.  However, it is important to note that creating a website that is both beautiful and accessible is possible if people just keep a few elements in mind.

ADA-compliant websites are keyboard-accessible.  This basically means that all the functionalities of the website must be accessed through the keyboard.  There are some disabled users make use of specialized computer keyboards, in addition to the traditional ones.  As a result, the website navigation must be logical and intuitive. This basically means that it must follow a visual flow, such as “right to left” or “top to bottom”. One would want to make it easy for their users to navigate buttons, links, and form controls on the website via keyboards.

UX and Web Accessibility

Written content like calls-to-actions and page info must be easy to read.  Vision issues like cataract, color blindness, near or farsightedness, as well as low vision are among the most common disabilities in the world. Hence, it makes sense to give priority to text clarity when it comes to designing websites.

Everyone would love to have varying colors and hues on their website.  Even though colors are indeed important, they are not the only consideration to make while trying to develop an accessible user interface. Font size and style shall be pretty important too. When it comes to accessibility, Arial, Verdana, and Calibri are some of the most recommended font styles.

When trying to structure online content, one must always take into account how it can be accessed by people who use screen readers. These basically are devices that can translate digital text into synthesized speech. One must try to note that a screen reader presents content linearly or one item at a time, and hence this factor needs to be kept in mind when developing the website.

Providing a text description is also important for links, as it allows the visitors to determine whether to follow the link or not. If the link redirects users to an image, the text alternative can be used to describe the unique function of the link. Companies like AccessiBe offer valuable resources to make websites accessible.

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