What is accessibility?

In regards to websites, accessibility means having equal access to web-based information and services, regardless of physical or developmental abilities or impairments. Whilst some of us access the web using a traditional web browser such as Internet Explorer or FireFox, others may have to use various types of assistive technology to access the web such as magnifiers or screen readers.

Just as ramps, cump cutouts, lowered drinking fountains and elevator buttons benefit everyone by enhancing physical access for those with impairments, web site features such as text descriptions, captioned videos, labeled forms and tables beneift us by enhancing web access. By implementing measures to improve web accessibility, we all can enjoy the same freedom of access to the web, regardless of the browsing technology we use.

How can I make my website more accessible?

When Datasearch builds your website, we endeavour to meet the guidelines for the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Conformance Level "A" rating for accessibility.

However accessibility is also affected by the PDFs, images, tables, videos and text that you add to the website after it is launched. Here are a few simple guidelines that you can follow to ensure that the accessibility guidelines are maintained.

Providing Alternate Text for Images

Entering Alternate Text on all of your images not only allows search engines to index your content better, it also allows users with vision-impairments to determine the meaning behind an image by using a computer program known as a screen reader. This text should always be entered, even if the text is built in as part of the image itself. Note: Having a caption under the image is NOT a suitable replacement for accurate Alt Text.

Provide transcripts for Videos and Audio Recordings

For visitors to your website that have hearing impairments, providing a transcript of a video or recording will allow them to understand the meaning behind it. This is especially true if the audio is particularly quiet, garbled, or difficult to hear due to background noise. Most video sections of websites we build allow you to enter a description for the video. This is a great spot to also include a transcript.

Ensure that your text is displayed in a distinct colour

If you're changing the colour that your content is displayed in, always make sure that it is still clear and distinguished from the background colour. This also means that you should never hide text from your visitors by making it the same colour as the background (search engines will bump you down for this as well).

This idea also applies for colours that often affect colour-blinded visitors such as red text on a green background.

Be sure to check the constrast between your colours on a few different computers too. Different monitors will often have different contrast levels, so some text that appears clearly on one screen may not be so on another.

Give your pages accurate names

Most of our websites are built on a Content Management System that allows you to add new pages to your website yourself. When doing so, it's important to make sure that both the Page Name and the Page Title (which appears in the bar at the top of your browser) give an accurate representation of what the content on the page is actually about.

This same idea also applies for headings within your pages. Try seperating your content using headings that help users to identify what each section is about. Make sure the headings are distinct enough from the rest of the text to draw attention to them.

Make your link text descriptive

It's often very easy to say something like "To read more information about our products, click here." To most people reading it, it seems obvious where you should click and what it is for. But for vision impaired visitors using a screen reader, they may simply be told that there is a link that says "click here" without any context. Make sure that the text that is actually being linked accurately explains either what the visitor will find on the linked page, or what reason they should have for clicking on it. A much better example of appropriate link text would be "Read more information about our products".

Ensuring that your link text is descriptive is also vital for search engine ranking. Search engines will index pages on your site based on the text that is used to link to them. Simply using "click here" gives no context to the search engines, and so they will not give your pages any boost for using relevant keywords.