What Are 3 Web Development Mistakes That Can, And Will, Affect Your Website’s Accessibility?
Mistake 01: Your Website Does Not Support Keyboard Navigation
A core component of web accessibility is keyboard navigation.
If your website is not navigable, using just a keyboard, then your website cannot be considered ADA accessible, as per the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
To ensure that your website is navigable, using just a keyboard, you can test it out. To do so, you can use a keyboard to navigate your website across every single page.
If you can do so with ease, and there are no issues, then your website supports keyboard navigation.
On the other hand, if you cannot navigate your website using just a keyboard, or there are issues that arise from doing so, then this is a sign that the code your website relies on needs to change.
Mistake 02: Your Content Is Not Responsive
Many websites rely on a responsive design that allows for flexibility. But what does this mean, exactly?
A responsive design, within the context of ADA web accessibility, is a design that supports a wide variety of different formats, for those who rely on those formats to navigate the web.
Just as an example, if a disabled user zooms in on your website, as a result of a vision disability, everything on your website should still be clear, accessible, and relatively similar.
If the above is not true and, just as an example, the images on that page are blurry or unclear, then that is a problem.
A wide variety of other examples apply to responsive design and its effect on ADA web accessibility. But zooming in is one of the most common problems, and if you do not remedy it, your site can be considered inaccessible.
Mistake 03: Your Website Does Not Support Assistive Technologies
Many websites support assistive technologies, and these days, it is easy to design a website that supports them.
Even though the above is true, there are some websites that do not. And, this is often due to the code the website relies on, as well as the website never having been tested with assistive technologies.
To ensure that your website supports assistive technologies, you should:
● Test it with assistive technologies.
● Make use of ARIA labels and other ARIA-related codes.
● Rely on alternate text.
Every single one of the above will make it easier for your website to support assistive technologies.
