What is accessible web design?
Accessible web design is about designing and building websites that work for everyone.
Specifically, those with disabilities that affect vision, hearing, movement, and cognition.
70% of UK websites risk legal action.
The Equality Act 2010 protects all individuals from unfair treatment and promotes a fair and more equal society.
That means your business must be accessible to be legally compliant, or face fines of up to £247,000!
You’re legally responsible for your website meeting accessibility requirements. Even if you’ve outsourced your website to a supplier.
If you think you can blame a 3rd party web developer or agency, guess what...
In the eyes of the UK government, YOU are responsible for your website being accessible.
Don't risk your business losing £247,000.
You're ignoring 13.4 million customers.
1 in 5 working adults in the UK have a long term illness, impairment, or disability. Many more have a temporary disability.
That's 13.4 million people.
Research by the BBC in 2017 shows that the annual spending power of disabled people and their families was worth £249 billion.
In 2021, that's now £274 billion!
Imagine if every fifth call you got, you answered and immediately told that customer to get lost!
You wouldn't be winning any customer satisfaction awards, that's for sure.
The bad news is, without an accessible website, that's exactly what you're doing.
When those 13.4 million people, and their families, with £274 billion to spend use your website.
And it's not accessible.
You're telling them that their money is no good, and you don't care about them.
But, accessible web design is ugly.
It doesn't have to be.
Our website, for example, passes accessibility audits without compromising our brand.
Most accessibility agency designers get this completely wrong.
Good use of white space, responsive design, and adapting to user preferences is ignored by 99% of web design agencies.
Can't I install something on my website to make it accessible?
No, you've been lied to, sorry.
If you could gaffa tape websites like that most developers would already be out of a job.
Some dodgy companies are peddling snake oil from $500 a year for their "solutions".
I'm talking about you accessiBe.
The 8 fundamentals to make a website accessible.
There are 8 fundamental ways to get accessible web design right.
Typography. 99% of websites get this wrong and it bugs me! Text sizing is best done using EM units, not pixels.
Content. Write content that's easy to understand, aim for the lowest reading level you can.
Colour Contrast. It doesn't matter how good your copy is if your user can't read it.
HTML Semantics. Structuring your pages correctly helps search engines and browsers to understand your content.
Alt and ARIA. Tagging the right content with good alt text and ARIA roles is essential.
Design. It just needs to look good right? Wrong. Accessible design starts as simple as buttons that are big enough to tap with your thumb.
Keyboard navigation. Can you navigate around and interact with just your keyboard? You're going to need to design more advanced focus states and interactivity.
User Preferences. Users can tell you about the experience they prefer. It's our job to respect those choices and design for them. So dark and light modes, high contrast, reduced motion are all part of that.
Want us to make your website accessible?
Use the link below to book a quick chat with us, and let's figure out how we can help you.