Common UX Accessibility Mistakes to Avoid on Websites

The World Wide Web was created by Tim Berners-Lee, who asserts that everyone may use it. Sadly, it doesn't always happen.

Bad design choices may create obstacles for a variety of categories of individuals. In reality, according to WebAIM's analysis, there were an average of slightly over 50 "distinct accessibility problems" on each page across one million home pages.

These mistakes prevent tens of thousands of individuals from engaging with your business or purchasing your goods in addition to making them feel excluded.

Few webmasters consciously exclude groups of individuals or restrict access to their websites. Understanding the most prevalent online accessibility problems and learning how to fix them using a clean design is crucial for this reason.

Let's get going.

Why Is UX Accessibility Important?

More than one billion people now depend on the internet for daily activities, therefore website owners must take precautions to ensure that everyone has equal access to it. Nevertheless, it goes beyond only human rights. An inaccessible website can be hurting your bottom line given as 61 million individuals in the US have a handicap. By making your website accessible, you might get access to thousands more users.

Following current trends in UX accessibility design may help your business's reputation. Your business values each one of its consumers when you attempt to serve a certain demographic of underserved users. This extra step could persuade prospective clients to use your brand more often in the future.

The little issue of legal compliance is another. Even while there is disagreement regarding if the 1990 Americans on Disabilities Act applies to both internet and physical establishments, hundreds of complaints are nonetheless brought before federal courts every year. A lack of ADA website compliance may not result in punishment, but it carries the risk of legal action.

At the end of the day, designing using UX accessibility benefits all users, not just those who have impairments, and makes browsing easier for them. Even people with excellent vision may benefit from more labels and higher color contrast, and things like more alt text and improved link descriptions can help your SEO.

The 7 Biggest Accessibility Errors on the Web

Avoiding frequent problems and using new technologies are both important components of making your online presence more accessible. By avoiding the next seven blunders, you may significantly improve the accessibility of your website compared to that of your rivals.

Missing Alt Text on Images

An HTML element called alt text describes what an image stands for. From the standpoint of accessibility, alt text gives screen readers the information they need to effectively explain pictures to users who are blind or visually impaired. You are not making the photos on your site accessible to everyone if you don't give alt text or if it isn't particularly descriptive.

There is a distinction between empty and absent alt text. Images may sometimes serve just ornamental functions. When this happens, an empty alt tag, denoted by alt=", might be utilized. Screen readers disregard this and it does not affect usability.

Weak Color Contrast

Ever try to read anything with a white typeface on a yellow backdrop? Not so simple, is it? Nonetheless, a lot of people can experience that each time they go to your website. The fact is that some individuals find it difficult to comprehend text unless the backdrop and font colors contrast sharply. This explains why using black typeface on a white backdrop is so common.

Poor Link Text

From the standpoint of user experience and SEO, links are an essential component of a web page. Yet for them to be successful, your link wording must appropriately explain them.

Missing link language is surprisingly frequent, even though individuals familiar with SEO may never conceive of doing so. Since they are all culpable for having no text, screen readers will disregard logos, buttons, and icons. If you want individuals to click on your CTA button, that is not ideal.

Missing Form Labels

Even if it's only in your contact form, I'm virtually certain your site has had at least one contact form on it. But does each field have such a label indicating what data users should enter? If not, not everyone can access your forms.

No Markup For Data Tables

For screen readers as well as other accessibility tools, tables may be a real pain. When a table is encountered, screen readers notify the user that it has a certain number of columns as well as rows before showing all the data in the table. Regrettably, it's possible that the data weren't read in the right sequence. Even worse, tables with several sets of the row, as well as column headings, cannot be read aloud by screen readers.

Lack of Accessibility for Keyboards for Screen Readers

Not everyone will browse your website with a mouse. Many persons who are blind will navigate your website using a keyboard or other accessibility tool. And because of that, you should take extra care to plan out and create your website's layout.

Users need to be able to utilize the space bar as well as the tab key to traverse your website specifically. Small websites constructed with semantically sound HTML may be able to do this without any modifications, but more complex websites will need to have digital landmarks that make navigation easier for keyboard users as well as screen readers.

Without the Correct Markup, Non-HTML Content/h3>

While making your site more accessible, it's simple to overlook non-HTML components. But, information like Word and PDF documents might also be problematic. Users cannot alter these papers to make them simpler to read out of the box, and they do not function well with assistive technology. When papers are created as image-only PDFs, accessibility difficulties become even more problematic.

One way to address navigational errors is to designate these sites for screen reader navigation. Another is to make these papers more accessible when you produce them by using the accessibility checker integrated into Office.