Web Accessibility Research
Author: Austin St Mary
Published on: 2025-02-19
Research on website accessibility and how to implement best practices
Web Accessibility Research
By Austin St Mary - February 19, 2025
What is Web Accessibility?
Web accessibility is the implementation of certain best practices and guidelines into your web pages. Doing this ensures accessibility as well as the best web experience for persons of disability. As an added bonus, adding accessibility to your web page is required by law!
How to Implement Accessibility Into Your Website
Implementation can be achieved through the use of alt texts and aria attributes, as well as making sure that your website is accessible via keyboard - meaning that through the use of the keyboard you can focus on any important elements, some of which including links, forms, and buttons.
// Alt Texts (alt="")
<img src="dog.jpg" alt="Photo of a dog">
// ^ When a text reader goes through your page it will read the image as "Photo of a dog"
// Aria Attributes ()
aria-hidden="true"
// ^ Makes sure readers do not read this element
<span class="validation" id="vLastName"></span>
<input type="text" name="lastName" id="lastName" aria-describedby="vLastName">
// ^ Readers will read the text displayed within the span
// Keyboard Accessibility (onclick)
<button onclick="function()">Click me</button>
// ^ This looks for clicks using the keyboard, when interacted with it will interact with the button, form, or link
Law Behind Accessibility Requirements
The ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) along with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act were sign in the year 1973 with the purpose of making access to public information more accessible to people with disabilities. These acts mandate that governments and public businesses must contain accessibility features on their websites that follow the standards of the ICT (Information and Communication Technology) accessibility standards.
Overall
Web accessibility is a requirement on public websites. Even if the law doesn't apply to your site specifically, it is still best to include the best practice fundamentals of accessibility to enhance the experience of users both disabled and non-disabled. Through the implementation of accessibility best practices the access to resources expands for people with disabilities. Some implementations of which including alt texts, aria attributes, onclick tags, use of high-contrast colors and readable fonts, making documents accessible, providing video transcripts, and many many more ways.