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5 Effective Tips And Strategies To Boost Your Website’s Accessibility

5 Effective Tips And Strategies To Boost Your Website’s Accessibility

A website is vital for your business because it allows you to reach a wider audience on the internet and convert them into loyal customers. However, your online pages will become useless if they’re not easily accessible by your target consumers. Especially those with disabilities. In turn, they’ll look for other alternatives that’ll be able to cater to their needs – negatively impacting your market share. Thus, ensuring your website's accessibility is up to scratch is crucial.

You must make your website accessible for every user by giving them equal opportunities to use your page’s functionalities. That way, users with disabilities will have the same online experience as other users, which might encourage them to support your brand. As a result, you’ll gain a higher market share and stay ahead of the competition. In the US, it has been made mandatory by the federal government that all web owners must strictly follow the WCAG & ADA compliance checklist for websites. This includes all existing or newly hosted niches. Here, a specialist like “Accessibility Spark” can help all entrepreneurs and companies get an accessibility app installed on their sites. This will help them find out whether the website complies with web accessibility laws or not. If not, you must identify all issues and make the site fully ADA compliant.

Why advocate for web accessibility and how to properly carry it out? This post provides five practical strategies for improving your website’s accessibility. Keep on reading to learn more.

1. Opt For A Multi-Lingual Website 

Multilingual websites are more accessible than single-language websites because it helps you reach a larger audience. The more languages you offer on your pages, the more online users you can get, which increases the chances of them staying to browse your pages. They’ll likely buy your products and boost your search engine rankings as they understand what you’re offering them.

Yet developing a multilingual website isn’t as simple as translating words from one language to another. There are many factors to consider, such as cultural differences, legal requirements, and the technicalities of managing multiple versions of your site.

By hiring the expertise of website translation services, you’ll be able to translate your content into multiple languages so that more online users can access your site without difficulty.

2. Avoid Flickering Content 

Flickering content is a dangerous problem that can cause seizures to web visitors by triggering the abnormal firing of neurons in the brain. If this incident happens, your audience might develop convulsions and even death when left untreated.

If you have a static image on your page that contains areas of high contrast, you might cause flickering for some users. The same applies to animated backgrounds with flashing effects such as stars or moving lines. Thus, making sure your site has none of this flickering content to prevent triggering seizures from web viewers with epilepsy.

3. Don’t Use Tiny Fonts 

When you use tiny fonts, the first thing that will happen is that people’s eyes will have a hard time concentrating on the text. They’ll have to squint and strain their eyes to read it.

Not only does utilizing very small fonts make reading more difficult, but it also strains the eyes of your website visitors and makes them tired much faster than regular reading would. In turn, they might not be able to absorb the information on your website, which doesn’t promote brand recall and increase bounce rates.

One way to make your website more accessible is to use large fonts. These bigger sizes can make it easier for everyone to read your content, which can improve your webpages' layout and design. In addition, they’re vital for people with low vision or other disabilities that affect their ability to see clearly. As a result, readers with macular degeneration can enjoy your website without experiencing any problems with clarity or focus.

accessible content

4. Allocate White Space 

A broad white space makes it easier for a user with a disability to use your website. This is because they can easily read and understand the content on your site.

When you allocate white space, you’ll improve web readability for visitors with dyslexia, color blindness, and visual impairment. In turn, you’ll enhance their experience by providing better accessibility and inclusivity on your pages.

The best place to start is with your navigation. If the text is stretched and distorted, perhaps it’d be better if you used fewer columns or removed some padding around each link.

Alternatively, consider creating a page template that uses a single column of links. This way they don’t have to be squashed into small spaces. This approach can also improve accessibility for people who use screen readers. As there are no hidden menus behind other elements on the page, the screen reader can read it accurately.

5. Provide Alt Texts 

The alt text describes images in case they can’t be displayed, such as when a user uses screen readers or for other reasons. If an image fails to load, users will still be able to understand how that image relates to the content on your page. This greatly improves the website's accessibility and useability.

On the other hand, leaving out the alt attribute when uploading an image will cause search engine bots to guess your photos based on different features. In turn, algorithms will have no way of finding your images within your web pages. This means your content will never appear on search pages.

You must use meaningful and accurate text when writing appropriate alt text for your images. Nonetheless, if your image is an icon that does not convey any specific meaning, use the name of the icon instead. Next, don’t repeat what’s already visible on the page. For example, if an image is a photograph of a person’s face or body part, don’t simply put ‘face’ in the alt attribute.

Key Takeaway

As a modern entrepreneur, you must prioritize the experience of your web visitors. This helps you leave a positive impression on them. Therefore, you should follow these five effective strategies to boost your website’s accessibility. Once you do so, you’ll create a platform that promotes inclusivity that’ll meet and satisfy your audiences' expectations.

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