With the coronavirus ushering the era referred to as the new normal, it is most likely that everyone must make every conscious effort to adjust and adapt to meeting the challenges of the changing times.
As people begin to move forward with their lives, so do industries and businesses that strive to remain relevant and apply innovations that address the needs of everyone affected by it and make it more generally inclusive.
Why website accessibility is important
One of the most vulnerable sectors in society with the COVID-19 threat is senior citizens who are at high risk of catching the disease. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that people over the age of 65 are significantly at risk of developing complications linked to COVID-19.
The need to promote social and physical distancing measures among the elderly becomes an important priority that would require access to online and remote channels to make the changing lifestyle more simple and manageable.
This is where the need for website accessibility comes in as people rely on digital services such as online shopping, medical support and resources, and bills payment, just to name a few.
While access to many websites especially those that are vital for important needs may be easy and simple for many of us, still it poses as a challenge to man, especially among the elderly who did not use to take advantage of technology to address their daily needs before the pandemic.
For instance, there are those with impairments and disabilities that affected their ability to use a computer or mobile device such as vision-impairment, reduced dexterity, and decreased mobility.
The needs of the aging population should be considered and digital access barriers need to be addressed so that it improves their quality of life in these changing times and conditions.
Dexterity and motor control
For many people, using a computer mouse can be physically challenging and painful at the same time. There are those with physical impairments that make clicking a mouse button fairly impossible, especially small call-to-action buttons on websites.
For example, for those experiencing health conditions that are associated with severe tremors, a small clickable link becomes a very tremendous challenge and makes it relatively impossible to click unless there are ways to provide the support that aids in visual focus and alternative keyboard navigation functions.
Visibility
For people with reduced visual capacity such as those affected by visual impairment conditions, colour perception, contrast, and sharpness levels can be visually-challenging that can make web pages overwhelmingly difficult to read.
To address the visual components of the website, images and texts need to be visually clear, crisp, and large enough to be visible to everyone. This goes the same for links with zoom capability when accessing information or images when details need to be accessed by visually-challenged users.
Cognitive functionality and responsiveness
It is important not to forget integrating controls such as pausing highly interactive functions and features. Rapidly-moving carousels of photo galleries can be overwhelming to those who need more time to process images and information.
Hearing
For people who are auditory-challenged, especially seniors with deteriorating hearing capabilities, they need to have access to multimedia content such as podcasts, videos, or other interactive formats when transcripts or captions are not readily provided.
It is crucial for the hearing impaired to also have access to websites and online shopping channels to ensure their online experience is adequate and satisfactory. This necessitates the importance of designing websites for accessibility to make sure that everyone can access and navigate through websites with ease.
When designing for accessibility, it is important to consider these factors to ensure optimal results;
Readability
Ensure that text containers are resizable and use relative and legible font sizes. Common sans serif fonts are commonly used such as Helvetica, Arial, Open Sans, Calibri, etc.
To ensure accessibility for those with colour blindness, use a high level of contrast between text foreground and background colours, as well as maintaining a contrast ratio of around 4.5:1.
Always remember that links are marked not just by colour, but by underlining links so that it can easily be identified.
Avoid using too many acronyms, symbols, or iconography and instead, use texts.
Organisation
Remember to always consider consistent ease of navigation throughout your web pages. It is important to make it predictable, as well as easy to use and follow.
Avoid using content that can be too distracting such as using excessive details or technical information. Always think of your audience and use plain language to communicate.
Function
Ensure there is always enough space between links and buttons, as well as allow elements to have their respective focal points to differentiate it from the other.
Provide amply information on the purpose of links and buttons to avoid readers from guessing where the links will lead them to or where they will be redirected.
All forms must be properly labeled and avoid using disappearing placeholder texts when readers focus on it.
There’s no better time to re-consider evaluating and rethinking the accessibility and responsiveness of your website since it is critical that it needs to be adaptive to the changing behaviour of the market and at the same time make it generally inclusive to address the needs of the changing times and answer the call for the new normal.