Jasmine Web Starter

Accessibility often seems to get overlooked in a lot of digital projects, which is a real shame as in the UK 1 in 5 people have a disability - this could be visual, hearing, motor (affecting fine movement) or cognitive (affecting memory and thinking).

The concept of accessibility does not just apply to disabled people - all users will have different needs at different times and in different circumstances. Someone’s ability to use a service could be affected by their:

Location - they could be in a noisy cafe, sunny park or area with slow WIFI.

Health - they may be tired, recovering from a stroke or have a broken arm.

Equipment - they could be on a mobile phone or using an older browser.

Accessibility is about making sure your service can be used by as many people as possible which at the end of the day is good business and keeps you on the right side of the law.

Ok what does accessibility really mean for a website, lets break it down a little:

• Clear easy to read with good colour contrast from background to foreground.
• Space around items and minimal size to make sure an item is easy to click.
• Animation can be slowed or turned off (Reduced Motion Media Query).
• Make sure the correct markup is used to allow screen readers.
• Can the user use a keyboard instead of a mouse.

All of this may seem a lot of work but really its not, most can just be taken care of whilst making a website or planning a design.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (known as WCAG) are an internationally recognised set of recommendations for improving web accessibility.

There are three conformance levels A, AA and AAA. But its a good idea to meet level AA as a minimum, though its best to aim for AAA.

If you already have a website then you can use tooling to give you an idea of how you are doing. Which we cover in our using Google Lighthouse Sprout of Wisdom.

You can also use the WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool which gives you a visual display of your page with the issues or alerts marked.

Another great way of finding issues or areas to make better we explain in our Use your own website from your customers shoes Sprout of Wisdom.