Websites with poor accessibility ruin user experiences and discourage people with physical impairments from participating in online activities and transactions. To ensure an inclusive environment, businesses must make their digital platforms available for users with low vision.
This article provides key components for improving website accessibility for individuals experiencing visual impairment. Make sure to read on to learn how to modify your websites to provide a seamless navigation experience for all.
Benefits of Website Accessibility for Users with Low Vision
Improving web accessibility for users with low vision has numerous benefits. For instance, a more user-friendly interface enables people to complete tasks faster and reduces their frustration with navigating your page.
It also encourages more visitors to stay onsite and contribute through comments, ratings, or even purchases. That’s because they won’t be dragged down by a clunky page design that takes too much time to load or use.
Moreover, incorporating invisible accessibility into your website design helps foster an atmosphere of inclusion and encourages viewers from all walks of life. This is crucial for businesses looking to build relationships with their communities without worrying about leaving anyone out due to physical impairments.
Key Components to Improving Website Accessibility for Users with Low Vision
Improving website accessibility for users with low vision is a must for every digital platform. To ensure user satisfaction and promote a seamless navigation experience, you can rely on web accessibility service providers like Accessibility Spark and implement key components.
Read on to learn about these components and how they can help make websites more accessible to those who need them most.
1. Increase Text Readability and Color Contrast
Increasing text readability and color contrast is an essential component of improving website accessibility for users with low vision. Many find it difficult to read text when the contrast between the background and the text color is not high enough.
To enhance usability, use the dark font on a light background or vice-versa for the perfect contrast. Additionally, a screen reader allows users to rescale text size as needed. This will help facilitate content memorization and allow users to view better elements of your website that are more important.
When picking colors, maximize contrast without creating monochromatic pages, which can strain fatiguing eyes even more. Instead, use lighter shades of complements on a dark background or darker shades on a light background.
2. Make Link and Navigation Options Clearly Visible
To ensure website accessibility for low-vision users, it’s important to make links and navigation options visible. Visual elements like buttons, menus, and icons can pose a challenge because they need to be properly designed and labeled to be easily discerned.
Ensure that links change their appearance when hovered over, active, or visited. This will provide visual cues (e.g., highlighted boxes around the link) that guide users in navigating your page quickly. It will also keep them from straining their eyes to examine each element closely. But make sure to avoid using colors for visited and unvisited links that are too similar in shade.
3. Allow Easy Adjustment of Font Sizes and Zooming In/Out on Pages
Adjusting font sizes and zooming in/out on pages can go a long way in improving website accessibility for users with low vision. Increasing the text size alleviates the readability issues associated with poor color contrast and helps viewers focus on the content better.
You should also adjust the font size for comfortable reading in different lighting levels and when used outdoors in direct sunlight.
Additionally, you must enable your viewers to zoom in or out easily. This will offer them flexibility when navigating your page right from their browser window without enlarging text separately by changing font size through OS settings.
4. Provide Language Alternatives for Audio Content
Providing language alternatives for audio content is a critical aspect of website accessibility for users with low vision. This can involve verbal descriptions alongside images and providing subtitles to audio files.
Visually impaired individuals may struggle to understand and decipher visuals. Therefore, using text transcripts and extended headlines can help them make more sense of the information they cannot see.
Alternatively, integration with dedicated services will allow people to listen to written content as an alternative format, which helps eliminate the need for screen reading. Make sure that transcripts are incorporated. This way, people can easily find this information as text on a webpage or in a downloadable file format.
5. Enable Keyboard Shortcuts that Bypass the Mouse
Enabling keyboard shortcuts to bypass the mouse is an important step in improving website accessibility for users with low vision. The ability to navigate a page without looking for visual cues makes a huge difference for those who cannot see well.
Additionally, you should consider key features, including arrow/tab keys navigation and quick access to frequently used functions such as customer support, log-in forms, etc.
No matter how intuitive your home page or set of menus may be, some people prefer the convenience of navigating quickly and accurately with just their keyboards. Thus, it’s important to make sure all elements are properly labeled. This will improve user experiences for those with low vision or dexterity issues like carpal tunnel syndrome.
Here are some common keyboard shortcuts you can consider for your website:
- Tab – Move from one link, field, or button to the next
- Ctrl + A – Select all
- F5 – Refresh the page
- Alt+F4 – Close the active window
- Ctrl + C – Copy the selected item
- Alt+Tab – Switch between open applications
- Spacebar – press/select a button
- Ctrl + V – Paste the copied item
- Shift + Tab- Move to the previous element on a page
- Ctrl+S- Save the current page
Final Thoughts
Creating a website accessible for individuals with low vision is possible with the right focus, effort, and resources. Improving your website’s accessibility will have numerous benefits, including increased visitor satisfaction, better conversations, and more purchases.
By following the right methods, businesses can create a user-friendly experience and foster an atmosphere of inclusion.