Millions of people around the world have disabilities that affect their daily lives. Many of these people rely on the internet to communicate and do business, and sites like accessiBe can help. All websites must be accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities.
What are the Americans with Disabilities Act?
This indicates that it is illegal for any company to discriminate against individuals with disabilities. In addition, the law states that employers must give reasonable accommodations to qualified applicants and employees.
How does the ADA apply to websites?
Accordingly, people who visit your website should access the information and services you offer, regardless of their disability.
What is Web Accessibility?
Web accessibility simply means that people with disabilities can understand your website. This can be achieved by following certain guidelines, explained in the next section.
How do I make my website accessible?
The key to making your website accessible is to provide all the relevant information through text and images, where possible.
So, when you add images to your website, be sure that they have ALT tags attached. These tags add a description to the image so that people who cannot see it understand it. The same happens for links. If you have a link on your page, please provide an ALT tag with a short text description.
How to Enable Web Accessibility on Your Website
To make sure that your website is accessible to everyone, one step is to install a screen reader. This provides audio feedback for blind or visually impaired people, and it shows you what they would hear as they surf your page. Additionally, most browsers now come with built-in screen readers, such as Apple’s VoiceOver function in its Safari browser, which reads aloud what’s on the screen.
Another useful option you can enable is to have your website read back to users by their computer. This allows blind or with low vision, whose eyesight is so poor that they cannot see the screen, to follow along with the words being spoken.
What are the Challenges with Web Accessibility?
The main challenges with web accessibility are training and human resources. It takes time, patience, and diligence to implement an accessible website properly. Another challenge is that not all browsers provide built-in screen reading options. For example, Internet Explorer does not have a built-in feature as Safari has, but there are free add-ons available online that you can use. Yet another challenge is that not all technology provides support for these features. For example, most mobile devices (iPhones, iPads) do not provide any accessibility options for blind or visually impaired users.
Why Web Accessibility Matters To Everyone
Web accessibility refers to the practice of making websites work well when viewed with assistive technologies like screen readers. Web accessibility is a basic human rights issue because people with disabilities must access the same information and interact with websites that other users can.
Conclusion
Websites should be accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities. There are many ways to make your website accessible. For example, you can enable the accessibility options on your website or hire a web accessibility consultant.
