Websites have become an integral part of our daily lives. They are usually the first stop we make when planning a visit to book tickets, check opening hours, view collections and much more. Therefore, they need to be accessible to everyone; think of it as a ramp which makes your entrance accessible to wheelchairs users, strollers or deliveries. An accessible website helps everyone. In this article, we will discuss the standards and legislation used in Europe, and the first steps you can take towards an accessible website.
Standards and legislation
To make sure that your website complies with legislation and works with assistive technologies, standards have been developed. The most important of these are the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), a web standards organisation. The most recent version, known as WCAG 2.1 is divided into 4 principles:
- Perceivable: Visitors must be able to recognise the website using one or more of their senses.
- Operable: Visitors must be able to control the interface. For example, buttons must be clickable though voice control.
- Understandable: The content must be understandable to its users.
- Robust: The content must be developed in a versatile way, to work easily across different browsers, both now and in the future.
The WCAG is not the only standard to keep in mind. The European Union developed a standard (EN 301 549 v3.2.1) heavily based on WCAG 2.1. Its requirements expand beyond websites and touches into hardware, documents, and support services.
The European Union also passed the Web Accessibility Directive (WAD). This directive requires, for example, to have an accessibility statement on your website and mobile apps as well as giving alternatives for non-accessible content. The accessibility statement should also provide a way for visitors to contact your institution so they can report problems and ask for an accessible alternative.
Tips & tricks
All visitors have different needs. To ensure that everyone can understand the information, you cannot rely solely on visual elements to convey it. Here are a few ways to improve the visual content of your website to to make it in compliance with legislation.
- Do not rely solely on colour to carry information.
- Make sure the colour contrast is sufficient. (4,5:1)
- Label buttons appropriately, a magnifying glass can be labelled as “enter query”.
- Multimedia content, such as videos and images, should be captioned, and described, audio description is a plus.
- Zooming up to 200% should be possible.
- Elements should be usable without a mouse or trackpad, for example, using tab to navigate.
- Interactive elements should be visually distinctive, such as a blue underlined link in a black body of text. This attention must be extended to the visual appearance of selected items, for example, a button changes colour when selected.
- Links should be descriptive, for example, don’t use “Click Here” or “Read More” as it doesn’t convey to which page the link is connected.
And you, where are you in your digital accessibility? Evaluate your website, the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative has a comprehensive list of tools you can use to check the compliancy of your website.
Standards and legislation, like everything in your institution, constantly change, stay on top of them so every visitor can enjoy their visit!
Resources
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1
- European standard EN 301 549 v3.2.1
- Web Accessibility Directive
- Accessibility statement example: https://www.africamuseum.be/en/accessibility
- Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools List
- Guidelines for Image Description
- Colour contrast checker
- Making Audio and Video Media Accessible
- VocalEyes: Accessibility resources for museums, galleries and heritage sites
- Anysurfer
- Inter: Online accessibility
© Photo : Elza Low
