Based on the Easterseals video “From Compliance to Culture: Foundations of Accessibility Planning.” The original program was presented by WeCo, a member of the International Association of Accessibility Professionals.
In April 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice released new rules for applying ADA accessibility laws to the digital world. It was a long time coming, though the World Wide Web Consortium (a major international influencer) had set its first Web Content Accessibility Guidelines a quarter century earlier.
The Consortium defines an accessible site as one that meets “POUR” standards: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust (“robust” meaning compatible with multiple assistive technologies).
Accessibility Needs
In lay terms, a POUR-able site is easy to figure out, easy to navigate, and free of dead ends. That’s a formula appreciated by any user; but for many disabled users, it’s the difference between helpful digital activity and frustrated despair.
Most disability concerns are in one or more of these four categories:
- Visual. Users with low to no vision rely on screen readers, Braille computers, and/or special keyboards to navigate the digital world.
- Mobility, especially limited hand control. Many people are unable to use a standard mouse or hit a touchscreen button accurately. Many others need voice or eye control to operate technology.
- Hearing. Users with hearing impairments need captions and/or ASL interpreters to follow verbal online content.
- Neurological. This covers a wide variety of conditions including ADHD, autism, Down syndrome, dyslexia, epilepsy, and mental illness—any of which may mean extra difficulties if a website is visually cluttered, overstimulating, or otherwise user-unfriendly.
Pet Peeves
Among the features most disliked by disabled users (and many non-disabled users) are:
- Uncontrollable “media blasts”: flashing graphics, rotating image carousels, constant sound. Any audiovisual can cause problems if there’s no way to turn it off, especially when someone has sensory issues. Some flashing-lights visuals can also trigger seizures. And screen-reader users hate noisy sites, which make it harder to hear the reader.
- Troublesome forms. Topping the “most hated” list are forms that “time out” unless the user fills every field quickly. Almost as bad are forms that have too many “mandatory” fields or demand near-identical information in multiple places.
- Screens with more links than text, a particular bane to neurodivergent users who want to get a comprehensive overview without going click-click-click for twenty minutes. Worse, some sites have multiple broken and outdated links.
- Tiny or crowded links/navigation buttons: a problem for mobility-impaired users who have trouble hitting exact spots on the screen, and for low-vision users.
- Vague link text. Screen-reader users, especially, want more description than “click here.”
- Lengthy pages. A page needing more than two scroll-downs is a burden to anyone with fatigue issues.
- Vague alt text. Cartoon visuals are frequent offenders here. No one gets much from an auto-generated “two children at a desk” that ignores what they’re saying.
- Sloppy audiovisual captioning. Many auto-generated captions are 70 percent accurate at best, especially if the narrator has an accent or the program includes unusual words.
- Limited options. Any site that provides a single option for finding information—whether the option is Search, Chat, forums, “call this number,” or something else—will lose a lot of visitors.
Features of an Accessible Website
Besides avoiding the above offenses, a “triple-A” website (one that merits the World Wide Web Consortium’s highest accessibility rating) should include:
- Screen adaptability so the site is easily readable and usable, no matter what device it’s accessed from.
- Fast page loading (another reason to avoid fancy graphics).
- Full keyboard-navigation accessibility, for visitors who can’t use a mouse.
- Intuitiveness, i.e., being easy to figure out. Among other things, this means clearly visible drop-down menus, and page titles that say exactly what they mean. This is no place for clever (and confusing) wordplay.
- Clearly visible acknowledgements of any action on the visitor’s part. For example, when someone submits a form, an obvious “Your form has been received” message should appear. If the form doesn’t go through, an equally obvious message should explain exactly what needs correcting.
- Alt text on social-media buttons. Without these, visitors using screen readers can’t find the links to their favorite social sites.
- A way for screen readers to identify style components (headings, bullets, etc.) for easier navigation.
- Quick-navigation options, including “skip to this section” links.
- Text with good color contrast and a plain, clear font. Anything else makes unnecessary work for the eyes.
- Captioning and transcripts for all videos. It’s easy to forget the transcripts, but they’re much appreciated by anyone with information-processing challenges. Captions may disappear before the viewer’s brain can fully register them.
It’s a bonus if the site has good reviews from disabled users. Ultimately, no one judges accessibility like those who need it most.