Web development projects can be tricky. They focus on different things, including visuals, content management system (CMS), responsive design, platform branding, and so forth. One area that is often overlooked is accessibility, or the concept of providing equal learning opportunities to everyone, especially those with varying needs. This oversight may be due to the misconception that accessible applications cannot be aesthetically pleasing, but good design takes into account accessibility as well as look and feel. It is important everyone be able to access information, regardless of abilities.
Tips to Achieve Platform Accessibility
Here are a few tips to help you facilitate better, more accessible content:
Accessibility Guidelines: Brush up on web content accessibility guidelines, or WCAG 2.0. They give an overview of various aspects of web content accessibility. Although meeting AAA requirements might be challenging, that should not stop you from aiming for all As and AAs.
User-Friendly Navigation: Simplify your navigation for web applications or websites or even platforms, and verify that target URLs redirect users to the correct landing pages. Additionally, ensure that when a user clicks a hyperlink, the resulting content correlates to the text in the hyperlink for additional relevancy. The data should connect to the heading, and the title should be related.
Color Choices: Review your platform’s color palette. One of the most common color-related difficulties people have is discerning red and green. If you are using only these colors to indicate a required field, you could prevent such individuals from understanding your message. On the other hand, people with disabilities often benefit greatly from color-coding to organize content. To ensure broad accessibility, include visual indicators, such as a question mark or an asterisk. You can also distinguish pieces of content by visually separating them with borders or other graphics.
Clean Page Appearance:
Alt Text: Provide alt text for images to help users fully understand the messages they are conveying on a page. Alt text is especially important for visual content, such as infographics. When creating the alt text or alt tag, work carefully to ensure that you are accurately conveying the information.
All these tips are easy to incorporate and will make your web applications more accessible. Therefore, if you follow these tips, you can help all users, regardless of their ability, access your content and engage with your site.