Lesson 10The design process: how to make room for web accessibility?
- Notion 67 - Consider the layout
- Notion 68 - How you can use design to optimise your content
- Notion 69 - Make initial mock-ups
- Notion 70 - Usability is key!
- Notion 71 - Structure HTML properly
- Notion 72 - Your use of language matters
- Notion 73 - How to work with visual content
- Notion 74 - The importance of keyboard-only navigation
- Notion 75 - Pro-tips on design that are universally useful
- Notion 76 - Types of content to avoid at all costs
- Notion 77 - Check for conformance to accessibility standards and best practices
- Notion 78 - Review of the main concepts
Notion 75
Pro-tips on design that are universally useful
Target skills
Accessible design benefits everyone
Web design that is accessible can positively affect the online experience of all users, regardless of whether they have or will have a permanent or temporary disability. Some users may have hardware limitations, such as small or low-contrast screens or no mouse. Relatedly, any user can have special needs and preferences in the way they prefer to access information. For example, some users like to browse with a keyboard while some must use a screen reader.
The situations mentioned above all point to the need to consider user diversity and, in turn, adopt a universal design, one that is both pleasant and functional.
Contrast is key to readability
In order to have readable content for everyone, it is important to have high contrast between a web page's background and its content. This high contrast will grant better access to some cases of colour blindness and impaired vision. It could also help in instances of a low contrast screen or reading outside in the sun.
For more information about color contrast and how to check if you web page respect the guidelines on the color contrast, see this content:
Provide alternatives to media
Images, videos, and audio are by default less accessible than text. A web browser can interpret text to produce a text-to-speech version or magnify it. Text can be computed in many ways and easier than videos or audio. For example, some users prefer to have access to the transcript or subtitles of an audio or video. Some users even remove images and styling for the pages they visit so as to have a more focused experience (otherwise called Reading Mode).
For all these reasons, you should always have a text alternative in addition to your media through HTML attributes alt, descriptive text, a transcription system or just a plain paragraph.
Know the expected behaviour
Some elements on a web page follow expected behaviour: a link opens a new page, a button validates a form, a dropdown menu displays a list of options. The same applies to content and its structure: the user expects to use sections and titles to find information. This kind of expected behaviour and structured content, in turn, makes content more accessible.
Yet, it goes beyond that. An ergonomic design should help users access specific content easily, quickly, and comfortably. Accessible content makes this possible for everyone.