An important aspect of building sites on the web is making a site accessible. There are a lot of things that go into accessible web design but there are definitely some places to start so that it becomes second nature to you when building a site (and when assisting someone in building theirs).
Reading
If you haven’t given much through to accessible design before I encourage you to read this short piece, 3 Reasons Accessible Design is Good for All.
Check out our guide related to web design and the one related to accessibility:
If you have time peruse the WordPress Accessibility Handbook for ways to approach accessible design while building in WordPress.
Activity
There are several things I want you to do as you get more familiar with the principles of accessible web design.
Part 1
On your training site you should find a published page called “A Guide to Accessible Web Design”. You should go to this page and using your new found knowledge of accessibility fix the problems and enhance this page.
Part 2
Go back to your site and review your site for some of the main accessibility features. Be sure to check the following:
- Do all your images have alt text?
- Is all your text legible? (i.e. good contrast, large enough font, etc).
- Do any pages need headings?
- Do you have any naked links or poorly descriptive links?
Part 3
Install and try out an Accessibility Checker plugin and see what else it turns up.
Part 4
Write a post! I’d love for you to address:
- Some new things you’ve learned about accessibility
- Some things you still have questions about or need more clarification on.
- Is there anything the accessibility checker revealed that you couldn’t modify?
