Creating engaging user experiences, assisting visitors in accomplishing tasks, and increasing conversions are the top tasks of web designers. They rely on common design patterns, trends, and aesthetics to fulfill their goals.
But this is not as easy as it seems. It is one of the major web development challenges. Web designers often get distracted from their mission by committing numerous mistakes unknowingly. Making poor decisions concerning the design can act as a barrier to the growth of the business.
The research conducted on UX accessibility reveals that there are around 50,000 errors found on website pages. These errors might discourage the consumer from interacting with your brand and availing of your services.
Consequently, understanding the common accessibility issues is crucial and should not be missed out. Let’s have an insight into all the issues and ways to resolve them in the post mentioned below.
Importance of UX Accessibility
Business owners should ensure that their website is accessible to everyone due to the widening usage of the internet these days. It is only by making your site accessible that you can expect customers for your products or service.
Moreover, complying with the rules, trends and other things can also add up to the reputation of the organization. Catering to the disadvantaged group is proof that your company values every customer and it also might bring potential customers for your business.
Moreover, it improves the browsing experience of the users and benefits your SEO.
Most Common Web Accessibility Mistakes
Web accessibility mistakes are not something that can be ignored or left untreated. If you want to level up your game compared to your competitors, then this is something you cannot miss. It’s as important as integrating any technology or other things.
So, here are some common web accessibility mistakes which you should avoid to make your site more accessible.
Poor color contrast
Poor color contrast is the major mistake committed by web designers these days. This can make it difficult for your users to read your text every time they visit your site because of the stark font and background.
This is the major reason businesses prefer black fonts on white backgrounds. You can improve this by avoiding similar colors for the backgrounds and text. While doing so, also pay heed to the design features as these are more likely to cause contrast issues.
Businesses and organizations can also make use of a wide variety of tools available in the market for doing so.
No alt text
Having an Alt text on your images is of utmost importance as it denotes what an image represents. It is the prime source of information for readers to describe images to users who are visually impaired.
Otherwise, your image won’t be accessible to all the users. The reader will automatically assume that the image is important when the alt text is missing. Also, the file won’t be sufficient for the images such as graphs and infographics. Consequently, every organization should have Alt text for the images.
Poor link text
The next major mistake committed by web designers is poor link text. Be it user experience or SEO, Links form the crucial part of the website. But they only seem effective when you describe the links using the link text.
The marketers also sometimes miss the link text. Above all, if you want users to click your CTA buttons then you need to add text on logos, buttons, and icons. The issue is not only the poor link text but also the vague link text.
The clickable text should clearly state what the users are going to find on the next page. Besides this, there are navigation links. If poorly coded, these can become a major issue for the readers. Luckily, you can solve this by assigning roles to navigation menus and indicating the purpose.
HTML content without proper markup
Ignoring the non-HTML elements while optimizing the site is obvious. The content in the form of PDF and word documents can become an issue. It makes it impossible for the users to customize the documents and make them easy to serve your purpose.
Fortunately, you can solve these issues by tagging these resources for navigation. Besides this, you can use an office built-in accessibility checker to improve the accessibility of your content. The organizations can also opt for interactive content such as sliders, and drag and drop widgets to improve their accessibility.
Using attributes to resolve the issue can also work wonders. Accordingly, it can notify the readers that the content has been changed and they can make use of it.
No keyword accessibility
Lacking keyword accessibility for screen readers is another major issue. No doubt, most people use a mouse for navigating your website but not everyone does so, especially visually impaired people.
Organizations need to pay special attention to designing and creating the layout. Make it accessible that the users must be able to navigate your website merely by using the space bar and tab key.
Also, add the skip button to save the users from going to every item presented on the page. Consequently, the users can easily head straight to the main content of the page and skip the navigation.
No markup
No markup for data tables is another major mistake on the part of web designers. The screen readers find it difficult to read the data in the correct order. Moreover, they also cannot read the data when there is more than one row or header.
So, the best alternative would be to have no tables at all. The other way is to make the tables as simple as possible and most importantly, use the right markup. You can use headers, scope or ID attributes to label your table.
Table captions can also be used to provide additional information to the users which will help them understand the table. Presenting your data as an image file is another alternative.
Missing form label
Every website tends to have one or the other form on it. But do they convey the essential information to the users? If not, then it only means that your forms aren’t accessible. They require a label to assist the users in understanding them.
Along with this, the organizations also need to add the description in the form’s code so that users focus on the placeholder text. Consequently, there has to be a visible label making it easy for everyone to understand.
Wrapping Up
No matter how great or experienced the designer is, the reality is that they tend to commit such mistakes which result in inaccessible websites. So, it’s essential to keep a check on these mistakes while building the website or writing fresh content. This will enable you to improve the user experience of the website.