Designing for Web accessibility is often an afterthought for many design and development professionals, as they are responsible for many tasks when launching or maintaining a digital property.
This is, however, a mistake as making sure every user (regardless of ability) can interact with a site and accomplish their goals should be a top priority. Website Magazine solicited the help of your peers to gather the best resources and advice for designing for Web accessibility. While many of their responses were featured in the November issue, here are some equally important tips*:
Stay in the Know
"Keeping up with legislature of the more 'social' countries and economies who can afford such programs is a good tip. Since the EU, that would be Germany, has regulations toward how accessible government websites have to be, the EU parliament has great advice. It's just that designers have to be willing to keep up."
"Lars Hilse, Founder/CEO, www.larshilse.com
Don't Cut Corners
"Always use the correct markup for the job. Headers should be in header tags, labels in label tags and so on. Get the basics right, and don't try and bend things in ways they weren't designed for."
"Fiona Taylor-Gorringe, Developer & Blogger at myaccessible.website
Don't Exclude
"Think of all possible app users and/or Web visitors when designing and developing. When you think that only your desired end-users will be using your app or website, think again. In 2014, Pocket Prep had around 50-75 requests to change our app design to better accommodate color blindness."
"Michelle Murphy, Director of Operations at Pocket Prep, Inc.
*Quotes were edited for clarity.
