Practical Approaches For Designing Accessible Websites

We design with viewports in mind, keep track of loading times, and hunt down even the smallest browser bugs — all to create the best possible user experience. But despite all these efforts to constantly improve our products, there’s still one aspect that, unfortunately, comes up short quite often: accessibility. With the help of this ebook, you will gain a deeper understanding of common accessibility pitfalls and learn to circumvent them to create a better experience for everyone. As you will see, with accessibility in mind, we can serve many more people than we already do. It’s about time to finally remove the existing barriers and build a more inclusive web — the effort is reasonable, and all our users will benefit from it. TABLE OF CONTENTS: - Accessibility APIs: A Key To Web Accessibility - Accessibility Originates With UX: A BBC iPlayer Case Study - Mobile And Accessibility: Why You Should Care And What You Can Do About It - Making Modal Windows Better For Everyone - Notes On Client-Rendered Accessibility - Design Accessibly, See Differently: Color Contrast Tips And Tools - Designing For The Elderly: Ways Older People Use Digital Technology Differently

If you are in charge of the user experience, development, or strategy for a web site, A Web for Everyone will help you make your site accessible without sacrificing design or innovation. Rooted in universal design principles, this book provides solutions: practical advice and examples of how to create sites that everyone can use.

Everyone deserves to use the Internet. An estimated 1.3 billion people experience significant disability. That’s 16percent of the world’s population, or one in six of us. At the same time, over 96 percent of the one million most popular websites have an accessibility issue. Add to this the massive rise in legal cases around sites not being accessible, including Beyoncé, Disney, and Netflix, and you have an important topic that more and more people are starting to engage with. In this updated and revamped second edition of the Amazon technology chart-topping Practical Web Accessibility, you’ll be guided through a broad range of disabilities and access needs. You’ll understand the ways these users typically engage with the web, the barriers they often face, and practical advice on how your websites and content can be compliant, but more than that, inclusive and enjoyable to use. There’s also a new chapter on “Outsourcing Accessibility,” exploring third party “bolt-on” tools, “build your own website” platforms like Wix, and popular design systems. You‘ll explore whether they’re helpful or detrimental in the fight to make the web more accessible. Throughout this book you’ll learn to test for, spot, and fix web accessibility issues for a wide range of physical and mental impairments. Featuring content from the latest compliance frameworks, including the newly released WCAG 2.2 and exploratory concepts in WCAG 3, you’ll see how to go beyond the basic requirements in order to help your users. You’ll also learn that an accessible approach won’t just help people with disabilities, it will improve your website for everyone. This book comes complete with practical examples you can use in your own sites, along with a brand-new approach to auditing and improving a website’s accessibility, and a team’s approach to it, based on tools created by the author and refined over years as a consultant — The FAIR framework and ACCESS checklist. With these tools, you can set up processes for yourself and your team that will drastically improve the accessibility of your sites and, importantly, keep them that way in the future. Suitable for those of any profession or experience level, Practical Web Accessibility gives you all the information you need to ensure that your sites are truly accessible for the modern, inclusive web. If you would like to learn about web accessibility in a clear and actionable way, this book is for you. What You Will Learn A greater understanding of a vast range of disabilities that have online access needs, and the issues they typically face accessing content online. Ways to apply the practical steps required to cater for those needs. How to take your sites, and colleagues, on a journey from being inaccessible to accessible. The importance of accessibility in your designs, code, content, and more. The best ways to test and improve your sites, so you can be compliant, and truly accessible. Who This Book Is For Anyone, regardless of what they do, who wants to learn how to make websites and their content more accessible for those with disabilities. In the world of web, the book has been used by front and backend developers, designers, product and project managers, team and business leaders.

With ever greater provision of resources in electronic formats, formal recognition is increasingly being given to the growing awareness within the information profession that it is a moral duty as well as a legal requirement to take every feasible step to ensure that no one is excluded from access to goods and services, including web-based information and resources. This timely book provides a practical introduction to web accessibility and usability specifically for information professionals, offering advice from a range of experts and experienced practitioners on the concerns relevant to library and information organizations. Contents include: tools used for widening access to the web Design for All - how web accessibility affects different people the importance of web accessibility accessibility advice and guidance accessibility evaluation and assessment issues for library and information services Design for All in the library and information science curriculum best practice examples of web accessibility web accessibility in the future. Although its main focus is on UK legislation and other requirements, many of the featured guidelines and recommendations are of an international nature, so are transferable to other countries. Readership: This approachable guide will enable information practitioners and students new to web accessibility to gain a good understanding of the issues involved in this vital area. The book can be used as a resource for developing staff training and awareness activities, or for developing course content. It will also be of value to website managers involved in web design and development who need to broaden a basic understanding of accessibility and usability issues.

Make designing and developing accessible websites fun and straightforward by deciphering information that is often confusing. This book examines how web professionals can ensure a website is as accessible as it can be, meeting the needs of its audience. The main focus is on web accessibility and, WCAG 2.1 and 2.2 guidelines: what they are, who they are for, and what can be done from a design point of view to make the lives of the users easier. In reviewing the fundamentals, emphasis will be given on what disabilities could potentially prevent users from getting the information they need and what can be done to help them. This is achieved by breaking down web design and development terms and practices, such as web accessibility, color contrast, typography, how to design specific components like carousels, forms, and so on. Each chapter features design examples presented in a clear and concise manner. Each design element is divided into different components, highlighting exactly what helps with what, showing how a website needs to be designed for the benefit of its people. A11Y Unraveled also reviews the current laws and legislations that govern web accessibility in different parts of the world. What You'll Learn Discover how people perceive information on the web, and how that might create barriers in communication. Review different disabilities or limitations that prevent users from accessing web information and how to address them. Design an accessible website for specific disabilities through practical examples. Understand how different web design components affect the user. Study current web accessibility legislation, avoiding difficult to understand lingo. Who This Book Is For Main audience would be digital and web professionals (mainly designers but developers can benefit as well). It can also help business owners who want to ensure their websites are adhere to accessibility standards.

Written for Web developers this text provides the practical tools, design techniques, and testing methods to implement web accessibility standards without losing any of the functionality of a Web site.

What is inclusive design? It is simple. It means that your product has been created with the intention of being accessible to as many different users as possible. For a long time, the concept of accessibility has been limited in terms of only defining physical spaces. However, change is afoot: personal technology now plays a part in the everyday lives of most of us, and thus it is a responsibility for designers of apps, web pages, and more public-facing tech products to make them accessible to all. Our digital era brings progressive ideas and paradigm shifts – but they are only truly progressive if everybody can participate. In Inclusive Design for a Digital World, multiple crucial aspects of technological accessibility are confronted, followed by step-by-step solutions from User Experience Design professor and author Regine Gilbert. Think about every potential user who could be using your product. Could they be visually impaired? Have limited motor skills? Be deaf or hard of hearing? This book addresses a plethora of web accessibility issues that people with disabilities face. Your app might be blocking out an entire sector of the population without you ever intending or realizing it. For example, is your instructional text full of animated words and Emoji icons? This makes it difficult for a user with vision impairment to use an assistive reading device, such as a speech synthesizer, along with your app correctly. In Inclusive Design for a Digital World, Gilbert covers the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 requirements, emerging technologies such as VR and AR, best practices for web development, and more. As a creator in the modern digital era, your aim should be to make products that are inclusive of all people. Technology has, overall, increased connection and information equality around the world. To continue its impact, access and usability of such technology must be made a priority, and there is no better place to get started than Inclusive Design for a Digital World. What You’ll LearnThe moral, ethical, and high level legal reasons for accessible design Tools and best practices for user research and web developers The different types of designs for disabilities on various platforms Familiarize yourself with web compliance guidelines Test products and usability best practicesUnderstand past innovations and future opportunities for continued improvementWho This Book Is For Practitioners of product design, product development, content, and design can benefit from this book.