Do you think accessibility doesn't apply to you as a designer? Are you trying to get others on board with it? Here are 10 things you should know about accessibility in 5 minutes.
Music: https://www.bensound.com
I got such great feedback on my Ignite talk at CreativePro Week a few weeks ago, so I decided to talk about it here.
Each speaker had five minutes total for their topic of choice. We had to present 20 slides, and they auto-advanced every 15 seconds. So timing was crucial to stay on track.
Stay tuned to find out 10 things you should know about accessibility in 5 minutes.
1. 96% of the top 1 million websites fail a basic test of accessibility.
96% of the top 1 million websites fail a basic test of accessibility, according to WebAIM.org.
For documents, it’s probably worse.
This goes to show you how much work there is for designers to do in this area.
In their study of the top 1 million home pages, WebAIM found the majority of errors to be with:
- Low-contrast text,
- Missing Alt-text and form input labels,
- Empty hyperlinks and buttons,
- Missing document language.
2. Accessibility positions you as an expert and gives you confidence.
Accessibility positions you as an expert and gives you confidence—with your work and in the sales process. And you don’t have to know everything about it to start doing it either.
Most designers are not doing accessibility work, and so you stand out. You can also command higher rates.
You know those design wars you sometimes fight with coworkers or clients after you present your design work?
“Make this blue because the boss likes blue.”
“Make this pink because I like pink.”
Well, accessibility puts an end to all of that.
3. Accessibility is not ugly.
Many designers think accessibility means their designs will be ugly, like that hyperlinks will have to be Microsoft Word blue and underlined or something.
There are poor designs out there. But they aren’t ugly because they’re accessible.
Again, most websites and documents are not accessible.
I don’t think you’d say these accessible designs were ugly.
But the other thing is that most people don’t notice good design—or accessibility. They will definitely notice bad design though, especially if they can’t read something, for example.
4. Accessibility is not just for blind users.
Accessibility is not just for blind users. They actually make up the smallest portion of people with visual disabilities.
Accessibility also helps people with hearing, motor, cognitive, neurological and other types of visual disabilities—even people without a disability.
Anyone could have a hard time reading gray on red, light green on light blue, white on yellow, and white on light blue.
If you have to avoid certain ingredients, like I do, you might think that one product contains dairy, soy, gluten—not that it’s free from them.
5. Accessibility gives your work more value!
Accessibility gives your work more value! That’s because your work will reach 20% more people.
More people can access your documents or websites. They can get around them. They can read them, and the content is in the correct order, so it makes sense.
All users will appreciate:
- Websites with faster-loading pages,
- Being able to scan a page to find content quickly,
- Easier-to-read content,
- Being able to tell something is a hyperlink and
- Being able to use the keyboard instead of a mouse
6. Accessibility makes you a more efficient designer.
Accessibility makes you a more efficient designer, whether you’re designing a document or a website. It means:
- Using the software properly and to its potential and
- Using more efficient layout practices
Who doesn’t want that?
7. Accessibility doesn’t mean sacrificing creativity
Accessibility doesn’t mean sacrificing creativity—that you have to use certain colors or typefaces or that your designs will need to be bland. You can design documents and websites that are both accessible and beautiful.
8. An accessible website theme only gets you so far.
An accessible website theme only gets you so far.
Many web designers think using an accessibility-ready WordPress theme means a website will be accessible. But many themes have accessibility issues, and there is more to building an accessible website than using an accessible theme.
Themes don’t affect the page content—text, hyperlinks, images, audio and video.
They don’t affect plugin functionality you add, which may not be accessible.
They also don’t affect documents that may be on the site.
9. Accessibility is more than passing an automated checker.
Accessibility is more than passing an automated checker.
Automated checkers only detect about 25% to 30% of potential accessibility issues. A human must assess certain things.
A document or website could pass a checker and not be accessible.
Automated checkers can’t tell:
- Whether or not Alt-text is sufficient
- If an image should not have Alt-text
- If content is properly tagged
- If content is in the right order or should be left out
10. Overlays don’t make a website accessible.
Overlays don’t make a website accessible.
An overlay is a widget that claims to make a website accessible—except it doesn’t.
I won’t name any of them because some of those companies sue people who speak out about them.
The truth about overlays is that they:
- Don’t work,
- Cause additional accessibility issues,
- Offer a false sense of security,
- Destroy usability,
- Discriminate,
- Slow down a website,
- Can open up a site to potential security issues.
You simply cannot automate accessibility.
A final thought. I like this quote about accessibility by Ekaterina Walter of Forbes.
If we do not intentionally include, then we will unintentionally exclude.
Watch my CreativePro Ignite talk.
creative-boost.com/ignite