Advancing Accessibility – 5 Quick Tips To Make Your Website More Accessible

Website accessibility has become a hot topic over the last number of years and is something you need to be thinking about as a Jacksonville, Florida business owner. An accessible website can be visited and used by anyone, including those with hearing, visual or other impairments. In the United States, more than fifty million people have issues with their hearing or vision, which means you could be missing out on a lot of potential traffic to your website if you don’t take action with the help of an experienced web development company in Jacksonville.

Furthermore, as of 2010, websites have become “places of public accommodation” which means that they must meet the requirements outlined in the Americans with Disabilities Act. There are various standards that should be met and thousands of lawsuits have been filed against companies whose websites are not deemed to be accessible to those with disabilities. Not only can this give your company a bad public image but it can also cost your business financially.

Let’s take a look at five quick tips that you can use to make your website more accessible with the help of our web designers in Jacksonville so you reach a larger audience, avoid lawsuits and ultimately generate more profits.

Ensure You Are Compliant

Both the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and the Revised 508 Standards and 205 Guidelines are available to view online. Take the time to review these guidelines to ensure your website meets the criteria and is accessible.

Focus On Content

When you are publishing content, make sure that is straightforward and easy to understand. Present the information in a clear and concise manner, breaking large blocks of text into smaller sections that can be read easily. Be sure to replace text with audio and visual elements where possible too.

Keyboard Navigation

Many users that have mobility issues can find it difficult to use a mouse or a trackpad to navigate your website. Enabling keyboard-based navigation will ensure that everyone, regardless of their disability, can navigate your website with greater ease.

Image Alt Text

Every image on your website should have an alt attribute connected with it. When visually impaired users visit your website, the screen reader will use this text to describe what that image is. Always ensure your alt tags are accurate in their description.

Text Size

It’s important to remember that while a certain size font might look better aesthetically on your website, visitors with visual disabilities might not be able to read it well. Supporting text resizing will allow users to be able to increase the size of the text on your site by up to 200%, depending on their needs.

Make Your Website Accessible To As Many People As Possible

There are countless things that you can do as a website owner to ensure that your site is accessible to as many people as possible. Get in touch with our expert team of web designers in Jacksonville at C7 Creative today to find out how our web developers can help you to make changes to your website that will improve your site’s accessibility which, in turn, will bring more traffic to your website going forward.