Accessibility. Noun. The quality of being understood.
When we apply this to digital products, accessibility is about checking your product is easy to use and understood by everyone, in particular those who may have barriers to accessing digital content.
There are over 1 billion people in the world who have a disability or impairment. Generally, their impairments fall into four categories:
- Vision e.g. blind, partially sighted or colour blind
- Hearing e.g. deaf or hard of hearing
- Mobility e.g. users may struggle to use a mouse or keyboard
- Cognitive e.g. dyslexia, learning difficulties, neurodiverse
It would be easy for the internet to be the wild west (and it used to be), but the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are the internationally accepted recommendations for digital accessibility. The latest version is WCAG 2.2, and the latest updates were released in October 2023.
The guidelines focus on four main principles:
- Users must be aware the content is there
- User must be able to use the interface and its components
- Users must be able to understand the information presented to them as well as the interface it’s presented on
- The content must be accessible, even as technology and time progress
Within the guidelines, there are different levels of accessibility:
- AAA - triple A standard, the gold medal approach
- AA - double A standard, the silver medal approach
- A - single A, the bronze approach
Generally speaking, AA standard is the accepted level that strikes a balance between accessibility and design decisions. This is the standard the UK Government seeks to meet in their digital products.
So, how can you go the extra mile to be extra inclusive and meet the triple A standard? Here are five things to consider:
1.Increase the ways your videos can be enjoyed, including:
- Include sign language translations
- Include extended audio descriptions for video
- Provide a text alternative for users to read
- (if live) provide an alternative to live audio eg. live captions
2. Avoid text in images
3. Let users know where they are on the site at all times
- Clear breadcrumbs (links at the top of the page that show which section of the site the user is in) are a great way to do this
- Making the sitemap prominent also helps
4.When writing or updating your content, keep in mind that the average reading age is 9 years. Make sure you:
- Keep your content understandable for a reading age of 9
- Break up content with headings
- Explain strange or unusual words (and only use them if needed)
- Avoid abbreviations but if necessary, include an explanation and use the abbreviation HTML tag to expand for screen readers
5.When choosing colours, opt for an even higher contrast between them
- The AAA standard for colour ratios is 7:1 (compared to 4.5:1 for AA)
- Tools like this contrast checker at WebAIM can help
These tips are a starting point and will set you in the right direction when creating digital content, but don’t forget that there is no substitute for testing with real users.
It’s important to test with a broad spectrum of users with diverse backgrounds and accessibility requirements on an ongoing basis to make sure your content is as accessible to as many people as possible. It can be all too easy to not see the wood for the trees and there’s no quicker way to bring things into focus like an honest user tester!
If you would like to hear more from our Accessibility Champions please email hugh.james@manifesto.co.uk