Accessibility According to those with Disabilities
This all started with a tweet asking those on the internet who have disabilities what can be a struggle on the web.
Lack of captions
- Videos without captions(subtitles) was said the most.
- Videos without captions can exclude users who are deaf or hard of hearing and could also affect users who forgot headphones on the train, or a place where sound can’t be played aloud. Sometimes even autistic people rely on captions if their senses become overloaded. It can be confusing if a person is talking off screen for them.
- Do not rely on Youtube’s auto subtitling, it isn’t completely accurate yet.
Motion, animations, cluttered pages
- Can annoy users without disabilities, but can be really frustrating for those with cognitive impairments.
- Can be very distracting to users with ADHD.
- Mouse Over effects/animations, sudden autoplay, etc. can frustrate the user.
Wall of text
- Large chunks of text can be a challenge for those with dyslexia or cognitive impairments.
- Neverending sentences and complicated language can be a challenge.
- Large paragraphs, too many moving images, too much content as videos (especially help files), no subtitles, pages with too much going on.
- Best solution would be to create more paragraphs with sub-headings, and utilize bulleted lists when you can.
Small font size
- There’s no minimum font size requirement in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, even though it affects so many low-vision users.
- Small font with low contrast to the background image or color can be terribly hard to read for low-vision users.
- Make sure that if a user increases the font size it doesn’t break the site.
Zooming Problems
- Users with low vision point to layout and navigation problems when zooming or increasing font-size.
- Zooming can break the layout.
Low contrasts and image of text
- Color contrast is still a major problem in a lot of interfaces.
- Lack of contrast between font color and background color.
- Photo backgrounds that overpower the text on top of them.
- Vital for web designers and art directors to understand how to measure and create accessible color schemes.
Bright color schemes
- Looking at white screens all day can cause eyestrain and headaches.
- The ability to switch to a night mode can help users with eye strain.
Relying only on color
- Color-coded toggles, heatmaps, etc, can be hard.
- Text links without underline can hard for users to understand they’re links.
Mouse-focused sites
- Many sites rely on mouse interaction. Especially for navigation on large screens.
- Sites that insist on using mouse over as the only means of menu triggering is an issue.
- For users with motor impairments that navigate using only their keyboard, a clear focus outline is vital to being able to navigate the web.
Too small touch-targets
- Areas being too small or too big, users accidentally hit them.
- Multi-touch gestures can be challenging for some users as well.
Captchas
- Non-accessible captchas can a extremely difficult for users with vision impairment.
Take aways
- Web accessibility is about so much more than just blind people with screen readers.
- Basically everything that people with disabilities comment on are things that annoy everyone, so fixing these issues makes your interface better for all users!
- A lot of what people comment on is not covered by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. So you need to test with users with disabilities!