Accessibility standards

As a web designer there are a number of disability user groups to be aware of. You may like to design for all or some. 

Why bother you might say? Well besides the fact that you are being professional and inclusive, you might be interested to know that an accessible website is more likely to rank higher with search engines than an inaccessible website.

Here is a basic summary of some key points to remember whilst designing an accessible website:

• use an adjustable font size
• use alt text for all images
• use international date formats (yyyy-mm-dd)
• use CSS rather than tables
• use the <title> element effectively: short and descriptive as possible
• use the <h1> element
• don’t use the <font> tag – use CSS to format text
• use relative size values not fixed size values (ie. medium/large – instead of 12 point)
• don’t use a small font size
• use a background colour
• use high contrast colours (ie. black text on white background is best for people with visual disabilities, avoid coloured text like red, blue, yellow and green)
• use plain fonts rather than fancy fonts
• avoid italics
• have adequate text/line spacing

For more information on general web accessibility standards, please visit these websites:

w3.org

w3schools.com

W3C Report: How people with disabilities use the web