When you create a website, you’ll inevitably put hours of thought into how it’s laid out, what content appears on the site and how many different pages you have within the site. One consideration which many websites overlook, though, is their accessibility for people with disabilities. All the snazzy visuals in the world are no good to a blind or visually impaired user, who instead relies totally upon a screen reader to communicate the webpage content to them.
Talk to people who require screen readers and many of them will tell you that most websites just don’t deliver on their needs. Studies show that 43% of screen reader users believe that websites are inaccessible because developers lack the understanding needed to optimise their accessibility. Three out of 10 screen reader users find social media sites to be quite inaccessible, while a quarter of people who need screen readers feel that the Internet has become less accessible to the visually impaired in recent times.
A website which delivers on accessibility will have content that is conducive to screen reading technology and that can be utilised by a wide range of such technologies. It will also be highly operable for users to interact with all controls on the page and contain content that is clear in its layout and its comprehension.
For a detailed look at how websites can improve their accessibility for people with disabilities, read the infographic below from Burning Nights (http://www.burningnightscrps.org/).
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