Icons representing website accessibility framed around a computer screen

Improve your Website Accessibility

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Introduction

A comprehensive list of tools, checklists and websites to improve your website accessibility, e,g, standards, colours, documents, design, images, etc. We start with an introduction to website accessibility, some quick guides and checklists. The resources that follow involve a deeper dive into specific important topics for you to take into consideration.

Intro to website accessibility

To enable persons with disabilities to live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life, States Parties shall take appropriate measures to ensure to persons with disabilities access, on an equal basis with others, to the physical environment, to transportation, to information and communications, including information and communications technologies and systems, and to other facilities and services open or provided to the public, both in urban and in rural areas. – United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) in which Article 9

There are many reasons to improve your website accessibility including:

  • promote a positive reputation
  • it is the right thing to do
  • be inclusive, inclusive, inclusive
  • give fair and equitable access to and for everyone
  • it is our responsibility – Australia is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD)
  • it will also improve your website’s quality and usability
  • reduce risk of being reported to the Human Rights Commission under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992

To read and understand more about why website accessibility is important see these three links:

About 15% of the world’s population lives with a disability. That’s one billion people. Of those billion people, 285 million are visually impaired and may use a screen reader to access web content. – Mailchimp

Quick Guide

Checklists & Cheatsheets

Three checklists to make it easy for you to improve the accessibility of your website.

Colour

Find out and test what colours are best suited for your website including text, backgrounds, colour contrasts keeping in line with good design.

Customer support

It is good practice to have clear customer service contact information (include a phone number and email contact) so people who are seeking alternate formats, or have other accessibility issues with your site, can contact you. This is also a great way to get feedback about accessibility of your website.

Put an accessibility statement on your website to let people with disability know how your website works. Some examples:

Design

Learn accessible design practices and principles.

Documents

Word documents, PDFs, Excel and presentations can be completely inaccessible for some. There are great tools that make your job easy such as the free Document Accessibility Toolbar for Microsoft Word by Vision Australia.

Emails

Creating accessible emails enables inclusion for everyone. Assistive devices use page elements to navigate web and email content. They support software to read text aloud.

For those living with disabilities, accessible content isn’t just about convenience, it’s about necessity. – Mailchimp

Evaluation and Testing

Check your inaccessibility hotspots so you know what ‘website blocks’ you need to fix. Consider using tools such as the Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool (WAVE).

WAVE can identify many accessibility and Web Content Accessibility Guideline (WCAG) errors, but also facilitates human evaluation of web content. Our philosophy is to focus on issues that we know impact end users, facilitate human evaluation, and to educate about web accessibility. – WAVE

Images

Images are used everywhere on the web and can be a major barrier when not accessible. The first step is to create alternative text, or Alt text, for each image.  Alt text is a brief description of an image when a person cannot view an image. It is important as it gives context especially when images aren’t downloaded, it can be read by screen readers and helps with searching.

Multi and social media

Videos can be delivered in ways that ensure that all members of the audience can access their content. An accessible video includes captions, a transcript, and audio description and is delivered in an accessible media player. Video transcripts are especially important for people with disability that impact hearing.

Quick ways you can improve social media include using #CamelCase for hashtags, limiting the use of emojis and providing alt text for images.

Representation of people with disability

Representation matters! Include diverse images, voiceovers, video and artwork that include people with disability. Invite artists, designers and photographers with disability to produce content for your website. Use the content mindfully and avoid tokenism.

Standards

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, published by W3C, are the most notable and comprehensive set of web accessibility guidelines in the world.

Tables and Forms

Tables and forms can be a major stumbling block for screen readers and can make no sense at all. The first rule is – the simpler, the better.

Technology

Just over 4 in 10 (41%) working-age people with disability are permanently unable to work because of their condition(s), and some who do work do not have adequate income. – People with disability in Australia 2019: in brief, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2019.

This can often mean that people with disability do not have or are able to afford the latest technology.  Accessing your website from an older computer and mobile phone may not be possible due to the earlier versions of operating systems. Keep this in mind when adding new whizz-bang website features that might not work on older technology when upgrading. One way to address this issue is to keep the functionality of your website running with earlier versions.

Understandable Information

Consider how easy the information on your website is to understand, especially for people with intellectual disability. Easy English is a style of writing that has been developed to provide understandable, concise information for people with low English literacy, including people with intellectual disability and people from a Culturally And Linguistically Diverse (CALD) background.

Did you know that 44% of Australian adults have difficulty reading and writing? – Scope Australia

User Research / Testing

Don’t forget to ask and test with the users themselves.

Using Inclusive Language and Disability Etiquette

Using the right language will engage a broader audience. Don’t use language that a person with disability would find offensive.

Language is a key ingredient in a winning theory of change. Language can build bridges and change minds. By acknowledging the ability of language to shape and reflect reality, progressive campaigns can become more powerful vehicles for social change, inclusion, and justice. In fact, understanding and applying the authentic language of the individuals and communities with whom we work can be a revolutionary act in itself. – A Progressive’s Style Guide, Sum of Us

If you know of any other great tips, tools and/or websites please contact us. This list was developed in collaboration with Krysia Birman from the Australian Network on Disability.

Please note the Commons Social Change Library is reviewing our website and email newsletter in line with the recommendations in this article. You’ll notice that this article doesn’t match a number of recommendations yet – such as using a low contrast colour for links and quotes in this article. Follow the recommendations, not our current example!

Please contact us if you have any suggestions and/or feedback.

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  • Organisation: The Commons Library
  • Location: Australia
  • Release Date: 2020

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