How can you design an inclusive website?

Actively seeking feedback from a diverse range of users is essential. This includes people with disabilities, as their input is invaluable in making the site accessible to different navigation methods, sensory experiences, and cultural perspectives. By delving deeper into users' experiences, challenges, and preferences, not only will you improve website accessibility, but you will also create a digital space where every user feels valued and accommodated. It's about fostering inclusivity and making sure everyone is catered to.

To create an inclusive website, adhere to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), ensuring compatibility with assistive technologies. Design a responsive layout for diverse devices. Use clear navigation, alt text for images, readable fonts, and sufficient color contrast. Provide captions and transcripts for multimedia content. Make forms screen-reader friendly with labels and error messages. Test with accessibility tools and user feedback. Maintain proper content structure, ARIA roles, and focus states. Allow users to pause animations. Support multiple languages and conduct continuous reviews for ongoing inclusivity.

Identify your target audience and their diverse needs. Consider users with various disabilities such as visual impairments, hearing impairments, mobility challenges, cognitive impairments, and more. It is also necessary to familiarize oneself with international accessibility guidelines like the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 or 2.2. These guidelines provide a comprehensive framework for creating accessible websites.

To design an inclusive website, prioritize: Accessibility: Ensure compliance with WCAG guidelines for screen readers and keyboard navigation. Responsive Design: Optimize for various devices and screen sizes. Clear Content: Use plain language and clear headings. Alt Text: Provide descriptive alt text for images. Consistent Layout: Maintain a predictable structure and navigation. Color Contrast: Ensure good contrast for text and background. Test with Diverse Users: Get feedback from people with disabilities. Multimodal Content: Include text alternatives for multimedia. Inclusivity enhances the user experience for all visitors.

Clarity ensures that the content is easily understandable for users with different literacy levels, as well as those for whom the site's primary language may not be their first language. Crucial to avoid using jargon, complex sentence structures, and technical terms. By doing so, we can eliminate potential barriers and make information accessible to everyone. This includes users with learning disabilities or neurodiverse conditions, who may benefit from simpler language that reduces cognitive load. The overall user experience makes a message universally understood and reduces the risk of misinterpretation. It's about making information accessible to all users and creating a website that is user-friendly for everyone.

Use of descriptive alt text for images, ensuring that users with visual impairments can understand the content. Alt text should convey the purpose and context of the image. Also, Use appropriate HTML elements for structuring content, such as headings, lists, and semantic elements like <nav>, <header>, and <main>. This helps screen readers and other assistive technologies interpret your content correctly.

It's important to choose the right colors and fonts. This ensures that the content is easily readable and accessible to users with visual impairments, including those who are color-blind or have low vision. To achieve this, designers should select high-contrast color combinations that are easy to distinguish. Avoid color pairings that can be problematic for individuals with color blindness, as this can optimize readability and reduce visual strain. Choose fonts that are easy to read. Preferably, these fonts should have distinguishable letter shapes and adequate spacing. By considering the needs of all users & selecting appropriate colors and fonts, we can create an inclusive website that is accessible and enjoyable for all users.

Use appropriate HTML elements for structuring content, such as headings, lists, and semantic elements like <nav>, <header>, and <main>. This helps screen readers and other assistive technologies interpret your content correctly.

When it comes to creating an inclusive website, it's essential to ensure compatibility with both keyboard and screen reader technologies. This provides accessibility for users who cannot use a mouse or who rely on screen readers due to visual impairments. To achieve this, it's crucial to implement logical tab orders, visible focus indicators, and keyboard-friendly interactive elements. In addition to this, developers should use <article> and <role="banner"> <role="main"> HTML and ARIA Landmarks. By prioritizing keyboard and screen reader compatibility, and implementing these crucial accessibility features, we can create an inclusive website that is accessible for all users.

The motivation to create an inclusive website, especially in the ecommerce space, should not be for the optics of doing so but so that you maximise your potential customer universe. Mindful that clogging up your key landing pages with excessive high res images, reels and calls to action is to be avoided, intelligently considered pop-ups and obvious graphic links to user-friendly proprietary resource/help pages represent viable solutions. While the inclusion of a comprehensive FAQ might seem a given, all too often this lacks depth, substance and clear signposting. Implementing improvements suggested by visitors is smart practice and demonstrates that your organisation is genuinely listening. It also leads to higher, positive engagement.

When creating an inclusive website, it's important to provide users with multiple ways to interact with and navigate content. This accommodates both mouse users and those who rely on keyboard-only or voice commands. Keyboard shortcuts can be crucial, for instance, in helping users to navigate content more efficiently. Skip-to-content links can also help users quickly bypass less important material and get to the main content on a page. Voice command recognition & touch-friendly controls can help users with mobility impairments interact with content on mobile devices. It's about making sure that all users can enjoy a smooth and intuitive user experience when engaging with your website.

Important touchpoints to consider are a variety of alternative ways to get help on a site. This can include a chat feature, an email response setup, a bot that can help lead someone through a process, built-in help modules or bubbles, phone number prominence, and, of course, heavy UX considerations. Watching screen recordings of website users interacting with your site can be incredibly illuminating.