Web Accessibility - What You Should Know

You must have heard from Internet savvy people that xyz website is not accessible under certain conditions. This simply means a website is not accessible for people with limited abilities. Web accessibility is a vital issue while designing your company’s website. The accessibility features are often ignored by web designers discounting the possibility of negative publicity of the website.

These limiting conditions could either be functional (disabilities) or situational (lack in the equipments used). There are certain accessibility features within the website programming and HTML coding that can enhance the user experience of your website. Some of these include:

1. A text-to-speech feature is one of the latest additions to the website designing for the users with eyesight problem. The feature may not work properly for slow Internet connections but with increasing penetration of broadband in the remotest corners of the world, this feature is a sure winner for all the future website designs.
2. Alternate text to the images is an inbuilt feature you can incorporate in the web page coding. This will ensure that a text indicating the nature and slight description of image appears if the images are either disabled or do not load. This will make your web page more accessible to users with slow speed Internets who have disabled the images on their browser while surfing.
3. Another accessibility feature is the tab order. You can easily set the tab order to regulate which way the cursor moves if ‘Tab’ key is pressed instead of using mouse clicks. This feature is a great asset for a dynamic web page where you are asking the user to input and submit certain information.
4. The links should be distinct from the regular text so that the users can easily move around the website.
5. Most importantly, web accessibility of your site is meaningless if the content is not written in plain language. Whatever language you opt for your website, it’s extremely vital to use simple words for easy readability.