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Six proven ways to improve website accessibility
Website accessibility is ensuring your websites are properly designed and coded so all users can access your content.
1 May 2023 6 min read
Introduction
Many websites are inaccessible to certain users. That can make them difficult or in some cases impossible to use.
This blog provides six ways to improve your websites accessibility and the benefits of doing so.
How does website accessibility benefit you?
Accessible websites provide equal access to all users including people with disabilities and vision impairments. By letting all users visit and access your site, your baseline traffic will naturally increase over time.
Increased website traffic - Accessible websites provide equal access to all users including people with disabilities and vision impairments. By letting all users visit and access your site, your baseline traffic will naturally increase over time.
Improved Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) - One part of accessibility for images is including alternative text descriptions for users of screen readers. Using keywords in alt texts can increase your search rankings. An accessible website also reduces bounce rates, again, improving your SEO.
Reaching a wider audience - A few simple changes to the way you design a website can improve the website experience for all of your users, helping you to reach more potential customers.
Heading structure
Clear headings help all users quickly scan through your content and find the information they require. A heading on the top of a page should always be a “heading 1” then any content relating to that should be a “heading 2.”
Plain English
Content should be aimed at the average reading age (in the UK this is age 12.) This will help all users to read and understand your content.
Links
Descriptive links tell a user where they are going, “read more” or a full website URL often aren’t useful to the user.
Colour contrast
When certain colours are used together (for example: yellow background with white text) it can be very difficult to read. Use a colour contrast checker to ensure all users can read your content.
Images
Visually impaired users often use a screen reader to read out the content on a website page. Adding descriptive alternative text to images can help these users understand the purpose of the images.
Tables
To make a table accessible you need to have a clear heading row along the top that groups the content beneath in the table.
Conclusion
Hopefully this blog will help you understand the importance of website accessibility and some simple steps you can take to improve your website.
