Accessibility: About Web Accessibility
3 min read
Accessibility refers to the practise of making it possible for people to access services, resources, and goods, regardless of disability. Web accessibility takes this concept, and transfers it to the internet and your site.
By practising web accessibility, you ensure that everyone, including those with disabilities or impairments, can access, navigate, and enjoy your site. Some of your visitors experience your site differently, and it is important to adapt your site to accomodate those experiences.
The importance of web accessibility
According to the World Health Organisation, roughly 15% of the population have some form of disability. Therefore, web accessibility is an important part of site creation, building, and maintenence. By making your site accessible, you ensure that everyone can access and enjoy it.
To get started, we recommend building an accessible site from scratch. You can do so by beginning with an accessible site template in the Wix Editor, and thoroughly following our accessibility checklist.
If you already have an existing site, you can use the Accessibility Wizard. The Wizard is a tool that scans your site, locates potential accessibility issues, and provides actionable solutions.
Keep in mind that although there are international web standards that sites are held to, your region may have its own specific set of requirements.
Tip:
Even if you've built your site with accessibility in mind, we recommend using the Wizard in case there's anything you may have missed.
Important:
While Wix is always striving to improve our products and services, we cannot guarantee that your site will be compliant with your region's accessibility laws and regulations. We recommend consulting an accessibility expert to ensure that your site is meeting the standards for your region.
Sight impairments and visual information
People who are blind, have low vision, or have difficulty processing visual information, may not be able to see your site content well, or even at all. Visual information includes the majority of your site's content, such as text, images, and GIFs.
These visitors may rely on other methods and assistive technologies to help them navigate your site, such as screen readers.
Screen readers "read" your site's content, and turn it into audio that the visitor can hear. This means that you should prepare media on your site to ensure that these visitors can access them.
You can prepare your media by:
Tip:
Don't forget to check that all of the text on your site has the correct HTML tag, so the screen reader doesn't skip or jump around the pages.
Motor difficulties and site navigation
Visitors with motor-related difficulties and disabilities may use different methods of navigating through your site, such as their keyboard, or assistive technologies.
To ensure that these visitors can navigate and explore your site, we recommend adding two or more methods of site navigation. Popular ones include:
You should also add the correct HTML tags to all text on your site. This is so visitors using the tab key to navigate can see your content in the correct order, and don't need to worry about the tab key skipping or jumping around the page.
Hearing impairments and audio
Some visitors may have difficulties or impairments related to sound and auditory information. These visitors may be deaf or hard of hearing, or have trouble processing sounds.
To ensure these visitors can access and enjoy all of your content, you should add alternatives for any media that contains audio on your site. Some of these include:
Cognitive disabilities and disorders
There are a range of disorders and disabilities that have an effect on a person's cognitive function. Some of these include autism, ADHD, brain injuries, dementia, and aphasia.
Visitors with these conditions can experience difficulty with focus, reading comprehension, and information processing. In order to make your site accessible for these visitors, we recommend the following steps:
- Ensure your site's format, structure, and layout are clear. For example, the main content of your page should not be attached to the header.
- Use language that is easy to understand.
- Minimise the use of decorative and / or animated elements on your site.
- Avoid using lots of different colors on your site, and make sure they're not too bright.
- Add alternatives to media that contain audio, such as transcripts and captions.
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