No matter their ability, all users of your website can take advantage of its full functionality thanks to web accessibility guidelines.
You may already be aware of the dangers of not making your website accessible, including losing out on potential customers and getting sued if you offer a necessary service on your website but don't provide it to people with disabilities.
Hypertext markup language, or HTML, provides an excellent foundation for the accessibility process. More recently, HTML5 has made it possible to create semantic content that enhances the accessibility of your website as a whole.
Certain features of HTML provide a strong foundation that makes your website easy to navigate for general audiences and people who might use assistive technologies.
Important Points
- Guests who utilize assistive technology ought to value what you have to offer.
But being accessible goes beyond being considerate of people with disabilities.
If you can't make a reasonable accommodation for your website, you risk losing business and facing legal action.
- It is unnecessary to fumble around trying to figure out which HTML tricks to use to improve your website because there are established standards that satisfy accessibility requirements.
- When creating an accessible website, HTML can be combined with other web design and development elements.
For more extensive accessibility options, you can also use JavaScript, CSS (cascading style sheets), and CMS (content management system).
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Is It Possible To Use An Accessibility CMS?
You can create clear structures with little effort, whether using a content management system (CMS) or building your website from the ground up.
If you're uncomfortable building a website using HTML from the ground up, you can always use a content management system (CMS). Many lend themselves automatically to accessibility. The most well-known ones are WordPress and Drupal, but there are numerous other CMS options.
It would help to exercise caution when selecting a theme because not all may support accessibility by default. This is particularly valid if you incorporate audio or video content, a multimedia type.
Make sure the plug-ins you install can provide text transcription or closed captioning.
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Which HTML Techniques Are Recommended?
Remember the standard HTML techniques that you should always keep in mind when creating a new website.
To guarantee that every visitor, regardless of ability, can interact with every part of the content on your website, accessible HTML makes use of multiple elements.
This covers the subsequent methods:
Use HTML Headings
Make sure that your website is always organized with "H" headings. On your website, the title should only be designated by one <h1> heading.
Use <h2> headings to divide the bigger sections beneath this. Whenever appropriate, use <h3>, <h4>, and <h5> headings to establish a clear page structure.
A practical method is to use a tool like Microsoft Word or Google Documents to create an outline of your content and then label the sections.
As you write, give each level a heading of "H," then enter the transcription into your preferred code editor.
Also Read: Maximizing Data presentation: Mastering HTML Tables for 3x Efficiency
Include Alt Text For Images
Every image you display on your website should have alt text available for users who are visually impaired. Screen readers recognise and pronounce alt text.
Note: You may leave the alt property empty if the images are only used as decoration, like a background image.
It is only helpful for users of some screen reader models to indicate these pictures.
Using an alt attribute is still common in these situations. Please leave it blank to let screen readers know there is an image, but prevent them from reading aloud the complete uniform resource locator (URL) for the image.
Give Your Links Meaningful Names
Make sure to use clear link text when making links. Ensure the text you use refers to the item you are linking to.
Steer clear of phrases like "click here," as these may cause confusion for users of screen readers that tab through the links on your page.
Use the name of the intended destination instead or a synopsis of its offerings. Readers read aloud the text enclosed in "a" tags.
Think About The Colors You Use In Your Web-Accessible Design
Some users need help to tell one color from another. This includes people who have some degree of color blindness in addition to those who are totally blind.
Colour should never be used for informational purposes. Think about how your page appears in grayscale.
Build Accessible Forms
Creating accessible forms requires using all available tags related to the information. Use the label tag, for instance, if you have a field for "name." This makes it easier to link the text to the particular form input.
Additionally, ensure that your labels make sense to someone who cannot see the form.
Use Tables Correctly
When entering data for tables, use "th" or table header elements so screen readers can understand what content is contained within a column.
Additionally, you can give rows "th" elements.
The table head and body were divided using the "thread" and "body" elements. Additionally, it's critical to include a "caption" or "summary" element so that the user can understand the purpose of the table.
Ensure Keyboard Access
A crucial accessibility component is ensuring that users can interact solely with your content using a keyboard.
Well-named links and a clean Hypertext markup language structure go a long way towards accomplishing this. Verify that the tab order corresponds to the page's visual order.
Use anchor links to break up the content if your pages are very long. This makes it much easier for someone to tab through the content.
Use ARIA Roles For Dynamic Content
Dynamic content can benefit significantly from ARIA attributes, but caution is crucial when utilizing them excessively.
In contrast to the ARIA role of "button," many of the roles within ARIA have been superseded by more recent HTML elements, such as the native HTML <button> element. It is generally preferable to use the HTML elements and to omit the ARIA roles whenever possible.
Only utilize them for dynamic content, like stock tickers. It's crucial to remember that nonvisual users may not find a page interactive merely because it uses ARIA.
For tools like date pickers, you might need to add some complex JavaScript to make it compliant with accessibility standards.
How Do You Organize Your Pages To Make Them Accessible?
When organizing your website, you should adhere to a few standard practices:
Label Page Regions
To identify distinct areas of the page, such as the "header" and "footer" elements, use HTML5.
To denote navigation menus, use the "nav" element; to indicate the main content area, use the "main" element. You can use the "aside" element if any supplementary content runs along the side of the page. If you cannot use HTML5, you can also use the ARIA roles.
HTML is always preferred, though.
Use Lists To Help With Structure
The content of the page is better organized for screen readers when the embedded HTML "ul" (unordered list) and "ol" (ordered list) elements are used.
These can be applied to navigation menus and other page areas where the elements are arranged and labeled clearly.
Don't Use Tables For Layout
A common error in accessibility is to base your layout entirely on tables. This leads to problems with how pages render in various browser environments and can be very confusing for screen readers.
Tables are only intended to hold tabular data. Ensure your HTML is correctly structured, and use CSS whenever you arrange content on your page.
Conclusion
Techniques for HTML mentioned above contribute to improving the accessibility of your website.
However, since accessibility-enabling technologies constantly evolve, there are no hard-and-fast guidelines for ensuring your website is always accessible. You can stay ahead of the game and connect with people you might not usually be able to without them if you abide by these general guidelines.
Paul is a highly skilled Full Stack Developer with a solid educational background that includes a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and a Master's degree in Software Engineering, as well as a decade of hands-on experience. Certifications such as AWS Certified Solutions Architect, and Agile Scrum Master bolster his knowledge. Paul's excellent contributions to the software development industry have garnered him a slew of prizes and accolades, cementing his status as a top-tier professional. Aside from coding, he finds relief in her interests, which include hiking through beautiful landscapes, finding creative outlets through painting, and giving back to the community by participating in local tech education programmer.
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