Web Accessibility

Web accessibility is the practice of making your website usable for everyone — from visually impaired users to older adults, users with motor or hearing limitations, and even those in temporary or situational constraints (like using a phone in bright sunlight or with one hand).

Making your site accessible isn’t just a nice-to-have — it’s a must-have for real-world usability, ethical design, and even legal compliance.

1. 👁️ Visual Accessibility

We must support users with partial vision, color blindness, or age-related difficulties.

• Label your inputs clearly. If you don’t want visible labels, use aria-label.
• For toasts and alerts, use aria-live="polite" or aria-live="assertive" so screen readers announce them.
• Contrast ratio should be at least 4.5:1. But don’t go overboard — high contrast shouldn't strain users' eyes.
• Use DevTools > Rendering > Emulate vision deficiencies to preview issues.
• Add alt attributes to every image — describe the image concisely and informatively.
• Use semantic HTML (<main>, <header>, <section>, etc.) so screen readers interpret structure correctly.
• Avoid vague link or button text like "Click here" — use descriptive labels like "Download Invoice", "Submit Feedback".
• Use em or rem units for font sizes and spacing — they scale better with system font settings.
• If your website has a contact feature, offer both call and text options.
• Consider adding light/dark mode for comfort and contrast flexibility.
• Test with a screen reader (NVDA, VoiceOver) or, even better, with users who rely on them.

2. ⌨️ Keyboard Accessibility

Many users navigate entirely via keyboard, especially with screen readers or physical limitations.

• Semantic HTML makes most things automatically keyboard-accessible.
• Use tabIndex="0" to make a scrollable container focusable.
• Use tabIndex="-1" to make an element programmatically focusable but skip it in tab order.
• Ensure all functionality is usable without a mouse — no hover-only menus or actions.
• Add a "Skip to main content" link for users navigating via Tab through repetitive nav.

3. 🔈 Hearing Accessibility

For users with hearing difficulties, ensure all audio content is supported with:

• Captions for videos
• Timestamps for audio summaries
• Transcript/Description areas for video and audio content

4. 🖐️ Motor Accessibility

Help users with tremors, limited movement, or assistive devices:

• Space clickable elements far enough apart to avoid accidental taps.
• Ensure buttons are large enough to interact with comfortably.
• Avoid timers or auto-redirects for critical tasks (like form submissions), as not everyone can act quickly.

5. 📱 General Accessibility Tips

• If your website functions like a search engine or dashboard, use the autofocus attribute on the primary input.
• Make your site mobile responsive — it's not just for convenience, it's an accessibility issue for many.

🛠️ Bonus: Audit Accessibility

Use Chrome DevTools > Lighthouse > Accessibility to:

• Get accessibility scores
• Detect missing ARIA labels
• Spot poor contrast or keyboard traps

🎯 Final Thought

Accessibility isn’t a one-time task — it’s a design mindset. The more inclusive your UI, the better your site becomes for everyone.

Start small, test often, and always design for the edge cases — because for real users, they’re not edge cases at all.