Accessibility extends beyond your website’s code and colour scheme. Accessibility can be applied to all aspects of your website, even the most important: your content. Accessibility best practices can help improve your website in many ways. It can help you rank higher in search engines and remove barriers that may be hindering your visitors.
Headings and titles
- The page title should reflect the main topic of the page.
- Having different pages with the same title is not a good idea.
Use descriptive and clear page titles:
- The page title should explain the page’s purpose.
- The page titles help orient the visitor to your website.
- The sitemap and search results show page titles. Visitors should be able to quickly locate the content they are looking for by simply reading the page title.
Break down content sections with headings:
- There are six styles of heading: H1, H2, and H3, as well as H4, H5, H6, and H4.
- Headings can be arranged in hierarchical order and ranked according to importance. H1 is the most significant heading, H6 the least.
- Each page must contain a title (H1).
- One H1 should be placed on each page. However, you can have multiple headings per page.
Use headings in the correct order.
Use headings based on their level within the context of your content.
Don’t skip a ranking from the top. An H2 should not follow an H4.
- Heading tags shouldn’t be empty.
Headings should be used in order of importance, not according to style.
Text
Use clear, concise language:
- For someone who has only nine years of school, write.
Use simple language that is easy to understand by a broad audience.
Avoid industry-specific language and jargon.
If industry-specific terminology is needed, add the definition to explain the terms.
Describe abbreviations.
A single abbreviation may mean something different in different contexts. Include definitions to help visitors understand the context for abbreviations.
Clear instructions:
- Many people have trouble seeing colour. People with partial sight, for instance, often have limited colour vision.
Links can be distinguished from the plain text by adding an icon, underlining, or bolding.
- Do not follow instructions that only rely on colour, like “Click the blue button.”
- Other than using colour alone, other methods can communicate information. If there aren’t text labels, for example, a graph with coloured lines can be hard to read by someone who is colourblind.
Barriers can be reduced by a chart that communicates information using shapes, colours, or text labels.
Sensory characteristics
- Visitors with disabilities may not be able to perceive shapes and sizes or use information about the spatial location or orientation.
- Instructions that only rely on sensory characteristics should be avoided, such as “Click on the round” on the left.
Links
Avoid linking text that says “Read more” and “Learn more”. Be specific about the link’s purpose. The link’s purpose can be clarified by saying, “Learn more about our services”.
- Link text that is shared must link to the same page. Two links sharing the text “About Us”, for example, must link to the same page.
Links shouldn’t open in a new tab or window:
- Links that must open in new windows should be given to the visitor prior notice. The link text can accomplish this by adding the phrase “(opens a new window)”.
