Web accessibility is the process of making websites and web applications usable by everyone, including those with certain disabilities, disabilities, or limitations.

If you currently own or are building a web application or website, you want it to be accessible to everyone, regardless of disability, age, or physical condition. Accessibility should not be considered until close to production. Instead, developers should include it early in the development process.

Accessibility (a11y) is an important part of web development as it gives unlimited access to millions of users. Unfortunately, many developers do not guarantee the accessibility of a website without taking the necessary steps and often ignore it. A recent report found that over 98% of websites do not provide a complete user experience.

Fortunately, implementing presence isn’t too difficult. Once you understand the issues that may be stopping some people from using your website, you can take steps to prevent those problems and ensure that your website is interesting for everyone.

Approximately 15% of the world’s population lives with some form of disability. It’s safe to say that if you’re not developing your website to work with Assistive Technology (AT) like screen readers, you’re preventing nearly a billion people from interacting with your content.

When you build an accessible website, you break down the walls of the web and give all users equal access to the web.

Reasons for Web Accessibility

Creating an accessible website is important for the following reasons:

1. It’s the law: Certain legal rules and regulations govern how to access the web. Failure to follow these guidelines may result in legal action against your organization. Therefore, to avoid the risk of lawsuits and complaints, it is best to make sure that you have your website or app is accessible.
2. Improves Usability: Usability means creating a efficient, effective, and satisfying product. By making a website accessible, you automatically remove barriers and make it accessible to all people with or without disabilities.
3. It’s a good thing: Especially if your website represents a public organization, you want to promote inclusion and diversity for everyone who wants to use the site. Creating an accessible website means you open the door for anyone who wants to use your website, regardless of ability.

Web Accessibility Standards

Web accessibility standards are set by two main guidelines:

1. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1)
2. The Web Accessibility Initiative — Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA)

The guidelines are published by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), which is managed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). These are guidelines that show how creators can make content accessible to people with disabilities.

WCAG has four requirements called “POUR”.

1. Perceivable: All information and parts of the user interface must be presented so that the user can understand them.
2. Operable: The user interface (UI) and navigation elements must be functional.
3. Understandable: The user must understand all the functions and settings of the user interface
4. Robust: Content should be easy to interpret for most users and assistive technologies.

The Accessible Rich Internet Applications Working Group (ARIA WG), led by W3CWI, also developed guidelines. WAI-RAI focuses on best practices for developing more complex web applications such as the following:

• Characters that display used widgets like “Progress Bar”, “Menu”, and “Slider.”
• Different roles, such as tables and headings, that describe the web page structure.
• Attributes that tell widgets, such as check boxes, what state the widget is in.
• How to provide keyboard navigation for web events.
• Attributes that describe areas of the page that are usually updated.