4 Key Web Accessibility Principles: Make Your Website Work For Everyone!

According to the latest World Health Organization estimates, over 1 billion(1) people worldwide live with some kind of disability.?

Out of this 1 billion, around 60%(2) live in a household that frequently uses the internet. In other words, there might be as many as 600 million internet users who depend on web accessibility.?

What Is Website Accessibility??

Website accessibility is a set of web design best practices that are intended to make a website easier and more intuitive to use for people with visual, hearing, motor, or cognitive disabilities and limitations.?

Website accessibility ensures that users with such limitations can have the same great experience on a website as those without accessibility concerns.?

Here’s some great news: Even websites originally designed with no accessibility best practices in mind can still be made accessible.?

For example, you can enable your website to support screen readers — a tool that many visually-impaired users often rely on to browse the web.?

Check out the video below to learn more about screen readers and how to optimize your website for them!?

?4 Key Principles Of Website Accessibility?

The four key principles of website accessibility are perceivability, operability, understandability, and robustness.??

1. Perceivability?

The perceivability of a website has to do with whether all the website’s essential content can be easily perceived and comprehended by a user.?

For most users, perceivability of a website depends on understanding information visually. However, visually impaired users may have difficulties doing so.?

As a result, they often rely on accessibility aids such as magnification tools or screen readers. An accessible website supports these aids with features like:?

• Contrasting colors?
• Legible text?
• Alternative presentation methods for time-based media?

2. Operability?

An accessible site must have an easy-to-operate user interface, including navigation structure and control elements like buttons.?

Users who have certain motor limitations can struggle to use a keyboard to input information, a mouse to click on the different interface elements or to scroll through the website, or fingers to tap away at a smartphone screen.?

Instead, they might rely on alternative tools and methods to operate a computer or any other device:?

• Keyboard-only navigation?
• Voice control?
• Mouse alternatives like a trackball or joystick??

Your website must support these alternative input methods and devices, while also being easy to operate and navigate.?

Simple text, highlighted headlines for visibility, and intuitive navigation all add to an accessible website’s user experience.?

3. Understandability?

The understandability of a website describes how easy it is to understand the website’s content and its meaning. In short, your website shouldn’t be overly complex or confusing.?

Understandability is usually affected by the language of the web copy, the content and presentation of the graphic elements, and the overall look and format of the website.?

4. Robustness?

Finally, robustness (or responsiveness) relates to the more technical aspects of website accessibility: how well its code works with the accessible software and hardware tools.?

These include screen readers, speech input software, and so on. Robustness is usually accomplished by integrating Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) into your website.?

Want to find out if your website follows accessibility standards??Request A Free Website Audit.

Ready To Make Your Website More Accessible??

Read our full article on web accessibility to discover:?

• Online tools to evaluate the accessibility of your website?
• Specific strategies to optimize your site for accessibility?

View our entire article to see accessibility tools in action – like Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool (WAVE), pictured here.?

Looking to create an accessible website??Request a Quote.

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1. World Health Organization. “Disability and Health.” World Health Organization, November 24, 2021. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/disability-and-health.?
2. Statista Research Department. “U.S. Individual Home Internet Access by Disability Status 2019.” Statista, July 7, 2022. https://www.statista.com/statistics/368609/us-online-access-householder-disability-status/.?