Web Accessibility
Web accessibility, or A11y for short, has become very important to me the past few years. I worked for a digital marketing company for 8 years, and have freelanced for almost 20 years. My primary job was/is to build accessible websites and apps for clients. The job also entailed performing thorough accessibility audits.
One of our larger clients needed us to audit each of their nearly 200 brand websites in only 3 months. I learned more in those 3 months than any of my years prior, as a result I can now tell in 5 minutes if it’s worth auditing a site, or if it simply needs to be rebuilt.
In 2020, accessibility.com reports that 2,058 website accessibility lawsuits were filed and an estimated 265,000 demand letters were issued. Those numbers have doubled in 2021. It shouldn’t take a threat of a lawsuit to make people want to be accessible, but that’s seems to be the way it is.
You may be surprised to learn that a lot of my clients intentionally made the choice to not be accessible in favor of doing something “cool” or “pretty”. I admire the clients that reach out and say, “I want to be accessible.” Everyone should strive to be inclusive.
We are going to be starting a series of articles that will hopefully explain everything you need to know.
300+
Sites Audited
200+
Accessible Sites Built
Guides
The table below provides the following imformation: A link to the article, the WCAG guidelines that the articles cover and their level of compliance. Everyone should strive to meet AA. Finally, the difficulty level.
Difficulty levels:
1 = easy. You likely will not need a developer to fix these issues.
2 = moderate. Depending on the CMS you’re using you may be able to make the edits yourself.
3 = difficult. You will definitely need a developer.
More articles to come.
| Accessibility Coverage | WCAG Guideline # | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| Images | 1.1.1 A, 1.4.5 AA, 1.4.7 AAA | 1 |
| Color Contrast | 1.4.3 AA, 1.4.6 AAA | 2 |
| Regions / Landmarks | 1.3.1 A, 2.4.1 A | 3 |
| Headings | 2.4.6 AA, 2.4.10 AAA | 1 |
| Tables | 1.3.1 A | 2 |
| Forms: Labels | 2.4.6 AA | 3 |
| Forms: Radios and Checkboxes | 1.3.1 A | 3 |
| Forms: Validation | 3.3.1 A, 3.3.3 AA | 3 |
| Media | 1.4.3 AA, 2.3.2 A | 1 |
| Controlling Media | 1.4.2 A, 2.2.2 A, | 3 |
| Media Captions | 1.2.2 A, 1.2.4 AA | 1 |
| Media Transcripts | 1.2.9 AAA | 1 |
| PDF’s | 1.3.1 A | 1 |
Recent Posts
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Responsive Design & Accessibility
Learn why responsive design is so important for accessibility and why we don’t use a mobile design from most designers even when we development “mobile first”
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Accessible Form Labels
Accessible form labels and description encourage users to complete and submit easily which allows you to complete your goals.
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Accessible Tables
Learn how to make HTML tables accessible to all users whether they use assistive technology or not.
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Proper Heading Structure
Learn how to use HTML headings properly to aid with SEO, Accessibility, organization, and usability.
