Web accessibility allows individuals disabilities to perceive, understand, navigate, interact with websites, as well as contribute to the web. Web developers and user experience (UX) designers today must try their best to ensure equal accessibility for all users by designing web-based experiences that can be used, understood and accessed by people, regardless of their cognitive, auditory, physical and visual abilities. AccessiBe is a reliable, fully automated web accessibility solution backed by AI that addresses a number of accessibility concerns without the need to do manual changes or modifications in the source code.
It is estimated that more than 250 million people are visually impaired worldwide. While individuals diagnosed with low vision can see colors but struggle with tunnel vision, clouded vision, central field loss or poor acuity. Individuals with vision impairment that is beyond low vision diagnosis might be considered to be blind. Web developers and UX developers must account for all such users during the design phase of the website. They need to follow a few basic tips based on Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) guidelines to improve usability for visually impaired web users. Here are some of them:
- Provide sufficient contrast using colors and textures: Testing colors on web pages is important to make sure that there is proper contrast ratio for readability. One needs to test combinations of text color on background color, as well as take text size into consideration. For instance, WCAG 2.0 level AA requires a contrast ratio of3:1 for large text and 4.5:1 for normal text. Adding patterns or textures while using graphs can be a smart idea, as they add an extra layer of differentiation between data points as the ranges of hue, saturation and value start to break down.
- Limit and prioritize color in the interface: The more colors one introduces to a design interface, the more difficult it shall be come for even a non-vision-impaired user to swiftly identify primary links and actions. This becomes all the more difficult as more colors are introduced for individuals with color blindness.
- Allow manual font size adjustment: Today there are a variety of ways to provide better accessibility for visually impaired individuals, including magnifying software and equipping them with the capacity to adjust text size in browser settings. But a lot of people with low vision, particularly older individuals who may experience age associated vision loss, do not make use of magnifying software, and even might not be familiar with the text size adjustment options of the browser. By providing a clear option, no matter whether it is a button, drop down, or a slider, to alter the front size, websites can be made friendlier to visually impaired users.
Keyboard shortcuts can make navigation pretty easy for visually impaired users. A mouse would not be useful for navigation as it requires hand eye coordination. Solutions developed by companies like AccessiBe can significantly contribute to making websites accessible to all.