As we’ve gone through previous entries of this series, resolving website accessibility problems doesn’t have to be as technical as rewriting code or building a new site from the ground up. Sometimes, other than an accessibility audit, only a few tweaks to these sections must be made:
Through Breadcrumb Links
Breadcrumbs are a type of navigation that helps users retrace their steps and navigate back to the original page or top-level content they came from. They are particularly useful for users who want to keep track of the path they took to reach their current page. These links are useful in illustrating the website’s structure to search engine crawlers and screen readers.
Additionally, they effectively enhance internal connections within a website, especially for extensive websites that entail intricate navigating systems.
To ensure breadcrumbs are accessible to all users, it is important to remember certain aspects, like ensuring they are consistently located throughout the website. Also, like anchor text for internal links, they should be descriptive so that screen readers can easily understand them while tabbing through them.
Through Alt Text
After evaluating the usefulness of the link, users can proceed by pressing the enter key to follow it.
Search engine bots rely on anchor text to grasp the meaning and relevance of the webpage they are directed to.
Furthermore, the sentence that encloses the link is useful for improving search engine optimization and making the content more accessible.
Ensure it is not a basic “click here” phrase when creating anchor text. Instead, use words specific to the linked page and keep it concise.
Through Navigation
The navigation of a website is designed to aid users in swiftly locating their desired content while highlighting the website’s critical pages. This feature benefits both users and search engine crawlers.
In most cases, navigation links are designed to be accessible by all users, including those who use keyboards and screen readers.
To ensure people can easily navigate your website, only include the main pages instead of every single page.
This could confuse all users and make it appear to search engine crawlers that your website has a simple, linear structure.
Through Readability
It is crucial to ensure that the data presented on a website is easily understandable and absorbable by both visitors and search engines. Making the content easy to read is a great way to assist individuals with cognitive impairments.
To make a website easy to read, avoiding complex language and using left-aligned text while using lists are crucial. It is crucial to have URLs that are easily readable for accessibility purposes.
Following best practices, they should be simple to comprehend and use word separators such as dashes. URLs indicate to users the type of content they will encounter upon clicking on a page, while search engines utilize them to understand the page’s context better.
One Final Note on Accessibility
Instead of viewing accessibility as a burden, we should recognize it as an opportunity to demonstrate compassion and consideration. The Internet is designed to cater to all individuals and should be accessible. In collaboration with our design and development team, we have a collective responsibility, accessibility audit included, to ensure that the websites we create are usable by everyone.
Enhance Your Website with AllAccessible
Our remediation platform is the most comprehensive, with non-invasive adjustments and no need for developers to go through a lengthy to-do list of code changes. Visit our website and take our accessibility audit to see how we can make it more user-friendly!