Digital accessibility: why we should all care

What is digital accessibilty?

Digital accessibility is about making digital products that can be used by as many people as possible. It's a legal requirement and is everyone's responsibility.

Why does digital accessibility matter?

Digital accessibility is also known as "universal design." The term emphasises that the digital products we build should be as useful as possible for the widest and most diverse audiences. Accessibility is all about inclusiveness and make sure that nobody is excluded.

Concrete examples of this are:

• Using plenty of white space on web pages to ease cognitive load.
• Colour contrasts being acceptable for a user with impaired vision.
• Users being able to navigate without the use of mouse.
• Digital products being compatible with a screen reader, so users can have text read aloud (be wary of using emojis because they're often confusing for someone using a screen reader).
• Buttons and links being designed so that they can be accessed by people with movement issues (e.g. not making buttons too small).
• Creating descriptive links, and only opening links in a new tab or window when absolutely necessary.
• Writing good alt text for images, or marking images as decorative where appropriate.
• Using logical heading levels (H1, H2, H3 etc).

As more services become digital, the number of people using the Internet increases. There is a growing problem that the majority of websites cannot be accessed by everyone. According to the charity Scope, 19% of working age adults in the UK are disabled, and 44% of pension age adults in the UK are disabled. For the public sector, it is essential that everyone can access information and services on an equal footing. For private companies, the exclusion of disabled people is a colossal group to exclude from their business.

Accessible content = usable content. It provides a better user experience for everyone, not just for people with disabilities.

How can you educate yourself?

There are many organisations which provide free information, whether you're completely new to digital accessibility, or an advanced web developer looking to deepen your knowledge.

Coded by Caroline Raw