Quick Tips for Your First Accessibility Review

Quick Tips for Your First Accessibility Review

You’re ready to get started on making your site more accessible and compliant. So … where do you go first?

If your site or app is already built/developed, and not a from-scratch project, the best place to start is by reviewing your current site to see what changes and improvements need to be made. This should happen even before you make your plan [LINK TO RESOURCE]; after all, knowing your starting point is the key to making a plan for where you want to go.

Here are some quick-hit areas you can begin reviewing in order to better understand the scope of changes and updates you’ll need to make.

Page Title

A clear and accurate page title is critical for every page on your site. They help to quickly tell users where they are within the site, and help them navigate more easily with accessibility tools (such as screen readers).

Alt Text

Text alternatives, or alt text, describe images and graphics displayed on a page for users who are running a screen reader or similar technology. The text may not simply be a description of the image, but instead provide a user with information about a particular function, message, etc.

As mentioned in our resource on over-compliance, there are a number of instances where alt text for images is actually not necessary. A quick way to differentiate when you do and don’t need alt text is to ask if there is any important information that the user needs to know contained in or on the image. If an image or graphic is strictly decorative, then you should choose the “null alt” text.

Headings

Headings are important for dividing and organizing information on your page. As such, they are important for all users – especially those who are utilizing accessibility tools. Check that your headings are marked up, and provide meaningful information to the user.

Contrast

Providing users with the ability to adjust or change the contrast ratio allows many people to maintain readability regardless of visual impairments or needs. There are three ways you can check contrast as you review your site:

1. A table displaying the contrast ratio(s) on the page
2. An eye dropper that allows you to select the colors and review
3. Disable color on the page (grayscale)

Each of these methods offers various strengths and weaknesses but will give you a good starting point for reviewing your site and its accessibility.

Text Resizing

Ensure that your page is compatible with text resizing, which is often provided through a browser’s built-in functions. This may include text size settings, page zoom, and text-only zoom, all of which may be utilized by people visiting your site.

Keyboard Navigation

For users who may be unable to use mice or other pointer devices, keyboard navigation is critical to getting around on a web page or other digital resources. Visual focus is a key part of this functionality – it clearly highlights the link, button, form field, or any other area that may be selected.

There are a number of things to check for here, including the tab order (reading order or flow of the page), tab to all (ability to select all items on the page with the tab button), tab away (ability to tab away from any and all elements that can be selected), drop-down list navigation with arrow keys, image links with clear focus and keyboard activation, and more.

Audio and Video Alternatives

Users with hearing or visual limitations will not be interacting with multimedia content in the same ways as others. In these instances, accessibility means providing alternatives, which may include audio-only options, closed captions, alternate text, transcripts, or all of the above.

Conclusion

These are just a few of the areas where accessibility considerations must be taken into account, but they will give you a good start to reviewing your site and planning for the necessary upgrades.