6) Site Search – Making your site searchable will benefit everyone! It reduces the amount of time looking for a particular piece of information and is particularly useful when the content is arranged chronologically.
7) Page Titles – Each page of your website should have a meaningful page title, for example the homepage should be the name of your website. This is especially good for screen readers as there is a keyboard shortcut (Insert + F10) which reads the titles of the windows open.
8) Relative Font Sizes – It is a good idea to use relative font sizing rather than absolute, that is for browsers that can support it. This is necessary for people with poor eyesight as it enables them to increase the size of the text. Internet Explorer for example will not support text re-sizing if it is absolute.
9) Language – You must tell people what language your site is written in. if you don’t most screen readers will try and guess what language you are using, and often they are wrong! As well as this 50% of Google users search in languages other than English, so make sure you put the language code in your <html> tag.
10) Labelling for Elements – Forms can be difficult to use at the best of times but they can be impossible for blind people. The
Top 10 Accessibility Tips
1) Main content should be presented first - When visiting a website people don’t want to search through irrelevant information before getting to the main content. It is also helpful for blind users using screen readers and with your content closer to the top of the HTML source you will move higher up the Google rankings.
2) Be Careful with Colour - Firstly text must contrast enough with the background colour. It is also important that you don’t use light text on a white background or dark text on a black background. This makes it much easier for colour-blind people to view the content. Use VisCheck to simulate what it looks like to a colour-blind user.
3) No JavaScript Links! – 11% of users don’t use JavaScript any many browsers designed for disabled users don’t support it. Use real links!
4) Using the Title Attribute – Many people forget to include the title attribute of the <a> tag. This can be very beneficial for making links more accessible. Despite this, it shouldn’t be used all the time, but mainly when the link text is out of context.
5) Must include ALT text – Every single image on a website should have a text equivalent, this is known as the alt attribute and will increase the accessibility of your site dramatically. Text only browsers will display it and screen readers will read it.