The nineteenth century was the time when no one knew what inclusion was. They mostly believed that disabled people could be taken care of, so no extra effort was to be made to involve them. Nowadays, everything has changed because digital content accessibility is a requirement.Â
Enabling digital media accessibility to all, including the disabled, is important for businesses, educators, and organizations to excel in their respective fields. Inclusion is being emphasized, more so on the legal aspect, inclusiveness in the creation of digital content improves the user experience, and additionally, helps in avoiding breaches of legal acts.
10 Considerations For Accessible Digital Content
In this article we will be looking at 10 crucial considerations for digital content accessibility.
Use descriptive alt-text for images
A simple yet underutilized method to improve the accessibility of images is by adding descriptive alt text. Preferably provide images accompanied by short action descriptions. Using a good alt text enhances SEO as well as the level of accessibility within the scope of digital media.
Alt text can be very useful in situations where the user has any kind of visual impairment or any other such problem.
Offer Captions and Transcripts
This applies to multimedia formats, including videos, audio recordings, and more. Captions and transcripts help make video content workable for the hearing impaired as well as making it available in alternative means in the form of transcripts.Â
The captions in a video should also include relevant non-speech sounds such as laughter, and background noise relaying the action.
Facilitate Keyboard Use
The mouse can be bypassed by some users who depend entirely on a keyboard for navigation around a website and for other digital platform navigation. It is important to make sure that all those interactive features such as links buttons forms and menus are functional and able to be operated by the keyboard only. This usually consists of changing the Tab order so that each tab highlights an object in the order that they are meant to be highlighted.
Maintain High Color Contrast
Color contrast is an important consideration for a person who has visual impairment of any degree as well as color blindness. Pay attention that the background and the text, or any other forefront elements have a good contrast. It is recommended to have a colour contrast ratio of 4.5:1 to the background for the normal text and 3:1 for the large text.
Ensuring Content is Screen Reader Friendly
A screen reader takes the text and other content present on the page and synthesizes it into audio to help blind users read. Content should also consider the fact that visually disabled people use screen readers so it should follow a logical flow of content according to the hierarchy created by the use of headings in HTML.
When books or websites are being produced, the logical reading order is followed and the screen reader can read the codes embedded in links, forms and other dynamic elements.
Create Forms without Barriers
Forms are also an integral part of content found on online sites; for instance, subscription forms are used to receive informative pages, forms are used when purchasing items, and forms are used to make comments or questions. Design of such forms should also ensure that the fields are labelled, error indications are legible, and guidelines are provided for each form component that requires input.
Navigation through forms should also be done using a keyboard and messages should be clear without color dependency. The use of ARIA labels will help in making the forms more usable for persons with assistive devices.
Eliminate Complicacy in Navigation and Design
Since clean and straightforward navigation enhances the experience for most users but especially for those with cognitive impairments or who depend on assistive devices, it is highly recommended. Any user looking for information on a well-structured website that includes a logical menu system, the use of breadcrumbs, as well as a properly located search function would have an easy task.
Do not make your website too ‘busy’ with intricate design, try and have various forms of browsing the content, such as content or a site map. All users will benefit from any deep and complex design if it can be avoided.
Make Sure To Use PDFs and Documents Which Can Be Read
A lot of content is made available by organisations in a PDF format or as downloadable documentation. The majority of these most of the time do not make pdf files accessible. To make PDF documents accessible, ensure that they include a tagged structure with a logical order of reading, recognizable characters and some links describing the contents.
In addition, for individuals who may find it difficult to use applications like PDFs, make some of these files available in other formats like Word or HTML. Programs such as Adobe Acrobat Pro can be effective in enhancing the accessibility of PDFs through the use of tags.
Perform Usability Testing Using Users and Ratio of Helper Technologies
Every disability access plan must have a testing component. There are various automated accessibility compliance tools which are available and check your content for accessibility level that complies with the guideline which is WCAG. However, solutions using automated tools can resolve a certain number of accessibility problems. It is very important to test our content with real users who have disabilities when in need of feedback.
Testing for digital media accessibility should encompass various sorts of devices mobile, desktop, tablets and browsers since user experience can be different from one platform to the other.
Keep Yourself Updated On the Accessibility Law
This underlines that even once this has been done, adjustments still need to be made because accessibility is still a relatively new field, both about where it is now and the laws that have come and gone. For instance, respecting WCAG standards, the ADA, and Section 508 legislation should not be regarded as unnecessary.Â
Collating information on the biases and shifting trends in users’ needs will enhance the content that you have, making it more diverse.
Conclusion
The reality is that devising an efficient and effective strategy will go beyond legal obligations. Such a set of instructions covers the basic ten considerations without which one will not be able to produce materials that can be used by anyone without any limitations. Starting from including alt text, and captions, while providing too contrast or even lightening the background every one of these stages is geared towards achieving fairness in access.
Adopting digital content accessibility not only widens the audience but increases its popularity as the number of web users leans towards the global culture.
High digital media accessibility standards are bound to improve user satisfaction, SEO, and engagement metrics. So begin now because an accessible web is not only useful, it is a must.
Key Takeaways
- The uniqueness deficit is overcome by providing alt text, captions, and transcripts with visual and multimedia content.
- Acceptably strong contrast e.g. between the text and the background when the graphics are navigated by keyboard only is a form of digital access for the motor and visually impaired users.
- To ensure compliance and enhance the user experience, regular testing and continuous learning of the guidelines are essential.
