Website Accessibility

Ensuring Broad Accessibility

Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can use the Web. It encompasses all disabilities that affect access to the Web, including visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, and neurological disabilities. While building this website, we used many design, coding, and testing techniques, such as those listed below, to ensure broad accessibility.

HTML Coding

  • Include ARIA landmark roles (banner, navigation, main, footer, etc.)
  • Declare language attribute
  • Links have :focus state
  • Links are recognizable (for example, underlined in body text)
  • Use relative rather than absolute units of measure (for example, ems, not pixels)
  • Specify meaning of abbreviations and acronyms
  • Allow users to skip repetitive navigation links (for when ARIA landmark roles aren't supported)
  • Avoid using onSelect or onChange events in dropdown lists

Rich Media

  • Unobtrusive Javascript; Javascript alternatives
  • Text transcripts for audio
  • Synchronized subtitles for videos
  • Images include alternative descriptive text
  • Allow users to freeze moving content
  • Documents scanned with optical character recognition (OCR) software and unrecognized text entered manually.

Web Forms

  • Logical layout
  • Associated labels for all form controls
  • Make sure placeholder attributes are not being used in place of label tags
  • Group related form elements with fieldset and describe the group with legend

Structure and Visual Design

  • Purpose of links are clear from their text (no “click here” etc.)
  • Headings and document structure are semantic; readable without style sheets
  • Safe colors for colorblindness
  • Sufficient color contrast
  • Responsive to all device/screen sizes
  • Avoid screen flickering or blinking
  • Do not cause pop-up windows and do not change current window without informing the user
  • Create a logical tab order through links, forms, and objects
  • Color alone is not used to convey important information

Testing