Making Your Website Inclusive and Usable for Everyone
Today, many businesses recognize the importance of accessibility and genuinely want to create a better experience for their users. Whether your goal is to meet compliance standards, enhance usability, or build a more inclusive digital space, the next step is understanding what accessibility truly looks like in practice.
The truth is, accessibility isn’t just about checking off WCAG guidelines—it’s about ensuring a smooth, frustration-free experience for everyone who visits your site. The good news? Achieving this doesn’t require a complete overhaul. By focusing on a few key best practices, you can significantly improve usability, compliance, and overall site experience with minimal complexity.
1. Accessible Navigation: Helping Users Move Seamlessly
A website with accessible navigation allows all users, including those with disabilities, to explore content without frustration. This means designing menus, buttons, and links to accommodate screen readers, voice controls, and alternative input devices.
Best Practices for Accessible Navigation
- Provide clear and consistent menus with logical hierarchies.
- Implement ARIA landmarks to assist screen readers in identifying sections.
- Offer skip navigation links to allow users to bypass repetitive content and jump directly to the main section.
- Ensure all interactive elements are fully navigable via the keyboard.
2. Keyboard Accessibility: Navigating Without a Mouse
Not all users can rely on a mouse—many navigate using a keyboard, switch devices, or voice commands. Keyboard accessibility ensures they can interact with every part of your website.
What Makes a Website Keyboard-Friendly?
- Every interactive element (buttons, links, forms) must be reachable with the Tab key.
- Use visible focus indicators (e.g., highlighted box around selected elements).
- Ensure drop-down menus and modal windows are operable via keyboard.
- Avoid “keyboard traps” where a user gets stuck in an element and can’t navigate away.
3. Alternative Text (Alt Text): Making Images Speak
Users who rely on screen readers depend on alt text to understand images. But writing effective descriptions requires following alt text best practices to ensure clarity and relevance.
Alt Text Best Practices
- Be descriptive but concise (e.g., “Golden retriever puppy playing with a red ball” instead of “dog”).
- Avoid unnecessary phrases like “Image of…” or “Picture of…”.
- Use
alt=""for purely decorative images. - Provide detailed text alternatives for complex charts and infographics.
4. Color Contrast: Enhancing Readability for Everyone
Low contrast makes text difficult to read, especially for users with visual impairments or color blindness. Ensuring strong color contrast between text and background helps all users.
How to Improve Contrast
- Use web tools like contrast checker to test readability.
- Maintain at least a 4.5:1 contrast ratio for regular text (per WCAG guidelines).
- Avoid relying solely on color to convey information—use labels, patterns, or icons.
5. Accessible Forms: Making Input Easy for Everyone
Forms should be clear, intuitive, and usable for all visitors, including those using assistive technologies. Many sites overlook this, leading to frustrating user experiences.
How to Improve Form Accessibility
- Ensure every input field has a label that clearly describes its purpose.
- Provide error messages that explain the issue.
- Use
aria-liveregions to announce form validation messages to screen readers.
Why Stop at Just These Five?
These five features are just the beginning of making your website truly accessible. When done right, accessibility improves user experience, SEO, and overall engagement.
Pluro: The Easy Way to Achieve Full Accessibility Compliance
Most automated accessibility tools only solve 50-70% of issues. Pluro takes it further with a hybrid solution—combining manual fixing tool to ensure maximum WCAG compliance.
Want to make your site fully accessible without the hassle? Try Pluro today and build a website that works for everyone.
