subject: Accessibility Issues In Website Design [print this page] If your services and products are for everyones use, than you must also create a website that is equally accessible by all people despite their physical disabilities. Making your website accessible entail two great benefits, firstly youre respecting the law by following no-discrimination factor and secondly youre able to target those 10 to 20% of the users whom others might not be approaching.
Here weve discussed some accessibility issues facing a website design and development, read along and find out whether your website is accessible to all or not:
Visual disabilities
There are broadly two types of users with visual problems. One that can see but are color blind and others that are fully blind. To optimize your website for this category, these are a few things you need to keep in mind:
Use images with text explanation. Alone an image may not be understandable
Choose text colors carefully. Color blind people may have a problem reading text in the same color of its surroundings and background
For completely blind users, use a non-visual browser such as a screen reader which reads the content on the website loudly.
Hearing Disabilities
Users with hearing disabilities can easily be accommodated by providing text and image descriptions to any of the audio and listening material on your website.
Physical Disabilities
Usually a physically disable user finds it hard to use the mouse. Try browsing a website without touching the mouse, how difficult is it? This is exactly what a physically immobilized person experiences. To make it easier for them, designing website with clean navigation otherwise your site will be unreachable by the physically handicapped.
Mental Disabilities
Being a normal human being, its always annoying to reach a website where everything is jumbled up with no clarity as to which information lies where. For people undergoing cognitive and neurological problems, these complexities may double! Heres what you can do to avoid this issue:
Keep design simple
Keep navigation clear
Break content into paragraphs and bullets
Organize info on the web page
dont use repetitive animation
These are some simple measures you can imply to make your website reachable by each of your potential users. Moreover, designing your website by giving priority to accessibility may also make your website available to other groups of users including:
Mobile phone, web-TV and low bandwidth users
Low literate users
Users with distracting surroundings such as noise or in a car
Slow learners
Other language users
Therefore, building an accessible web design has many advantages. You can not only increase your business exposure to the deprived section of your customers, but can also target other users facing technical difficulties.
