An accessible website for all possible website visitors is a must in this modern day and age. To ensure accessibility to these websites, you have to ensure that you are up to WCAG website accessibility standards. These guidelines are especially created for people who have disabilities and want to have the same access as regular people when it comes to the various websites that are present online. For people with visual impairments, there are various issues that will not allow them to enjoy navigating websites. When it comes to these people, they often deal with common website accessibility barriers. Some of these barriers include navigation, layout, non-HTML content, headings, and inaccurate or missing alt text. These barriers have been proven to have some effect on how people with disabilities are able to use screen readers and other necessary technology.
What makes screen readers ideal for people with disabilities will have to be their specialized keyboard commands. These features help people with disabilities get information about files, icons, various texts, and folders that are present on the screen. All operating systems come with a certain screen reader in them. Any text that you can see on a page can be read as parts or as a whole. But then, you can only meet the standards of these screen readers when you think about website accessibility when creating your website. Technology that helps people with disabilities access the web relies on accessibility-enabled codes that are properly structured. If there are code errors or faulty codes, the technology and screen readers used will not serve their purpose.
For people with visual impairments, there are common website accessibility barriers that they deal with. Two of the key elements to ensuring a more accessible website for everyone, especially those with disabilities, are layout and headings. For website visitors to know what they will find on your page, the use of proper web headings is a must. Instead of using decorative headings, you should aim to place them in a descending logical order for people with disabilities to interpret your web page properly. When it comes to reading HTML or CSS, screen readers vary. There are issues that screen readers deal with when they are unable to figure out the sequence of text presentation. Because these users don’t often read the whole web page, searching for text on screen is possible with the technology used in screen readers. Keeping this fact in mind, HTML should be structured logically. A logical order means starting reading from the right side on the top portion going to the bottom. This order ensures your website to be compliant with screen reader technology.
When you have navigation, your website should allow the screen reader to skip them to make it more accessible. Furthermore, for people with disabilities to better understand the content of your images, you must use alternative tags and text for them.