4 guiding principles for providing online accessibility
When the Americans with Disabilities Act was set into motion, lawmakers were making a passionate push to ensure that those with disabilities were protected against discrimination and afforded equal access to public entities and accommodations. At that same time, the Internet was still a burgeoning idea. Its future reach and significance was unknown, meaning accessibility issues for those with was disabilities hadn’t been taken into consideration.
Today, however, the U.S. Department of Justice is working diligently to create new regulations that will make Internet usability easier for everyone, including those with blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, learning disabilities, cognitive limitations, limited movement, speech disabilities and photosensitivity. The lack of regulations, however, hasn’t kept businesses from building websites that are accessible to all potential consumers. When an eCommerce site includes alt tags for photography, as an example, screen reader software is able to relay visual content into audio content for sight impaired website visitors.
In 2008, the World Wide Web Consortium established its web content accessibility guidelines to enhance website usability. The group’s recommendations were broken into four guiding principles, which still serve as the backbone for creating accessible websites today.
Making a website perceivable
The goal of every website should be to allow users to experience online information in some manner. According to the W3C, this can include:
- Providing text alternatives for any non-text content so that it can be changed into other forms people need, such as large print, braille, speech, symbols or simpler language.
- Providing alternatives for time-based media, such as video, audio and other streaming content.
- Creating content that can be presented in different ways (for example, providing a simpler layout) without losing information or structure.
- Making it easier for users to see and hear content, including separating foreground from background.
Making a website operable
The goal of every website should be to allow users to operate the interface in some manner. According to the W3C, this can include:
- Making all functionality available from a keyboard.
- Providing users enough time to read and use content.
- Not designing content in a way that is known to cause seizures.
- Providing ways to help users navigate, find content and determine where they are.
Making a website understandable
The goal of every website should be to allow users to understand the information as well as the interface. According to the W3C, this can include:
- Making text content readable and understandable.
- Making Web pages appear and operate in predictable ways.
- Helping users avoid and correct mistakes.
Making a website robust
The goal of every website should be to allow content to continue to be accessible to future users. According to the W3C, this can include:
- Maximizing compatibility with current and future user agents, including assistive technologies.
When eCommerce website owners take user experience into consideration, they should ensure that those experiences can be afforded to all users. By doing so, customer satisfaction is sure to grow. And, improving accessibility today will facilitate compliance for tomorrow when future regulations will soon be set in place by the U.S. Department of Justice.
To learn more about accessibility issues and how to improve the overall user experience, subscribe to the NetSphere Strategies blog.