Website Accessibility: Speed Optimization Website

Empower Your Website with Alt Text: Speed Optimization Website Techniques for Enhanced Accessibility Learn how to add alt text to images, optimize speed, and ensure accessibility with expert strategies. Boost your website's performance today!

Optimize your website for everyone. Learn essential tips to enhance accessibility during development, ensuring a seamless user experience, especially for differently-abled users.

Add Alt Text to Images:

Image alt text makes it easier for people with visionary disabilities to understand the content of a webpage. But you should include the alt text only for informational images that aid in the understanding of the content.

Enhance user experience with optimized images. Improve load times and engagement by reducing image size and adding descriptive alt text

example:

<img src="crunch_exercise.png" alt="You must have a good quality exercise mat and workout clothing to avoid back injuries and skin allergies">

Maintain Heading Hierarchy:

If you don't use headings in the correct hierarchy (from <h1> – the biggest – to <h6> – the smallest), screen readers might assume there's some content missing.

Because of this, it is best to use <h1> for the main title only, <h2> for headings that come after the title, h3 for subheadings, and so on.

Consider the example below: we have a webpage with a few headings. <h1> is used for the document title, <h2> for the second level document heading, <h3> for subheadings and <h4> for mini headlines (headings that come after <h3>).

Heading hierarchy example:

Use the Aria Property or Label Tag for Input Fields:

Aria labels or <label> tags tell screen readers what type of information an input field expects. Without them, screen readers would not know the purpose of an input field, which would provide a bad user experience to visually disabled users.

<!-- Aria label example -->
<input type="text" placeholder="Enter your name" aria-label="Enter your name">

<!-- Label tag example -->
<label>Full Name: <input type="text" placeholder="Enter your name"></label>

Example one uses the aria property for screen readers to read what the user is expected to enter in the name input field.

Example two uses the <label> tag with text Full Name which is readable by screen readers.

Provide Keyword Functionality:

Not all users can use a pointing device (mouse) yet a lot of websites do not provide keyboard functionality to users. This discourages users who only use the keyboard from returning to your website.

One simple example of this is adding a click event listener to the submit button of a form instead of making use of the onsubmit event (which requires a user to click to submit a form). Have a look at the example below:

<!-- Example one -->
<form>
	<label>Full name: <input type="text" value=""></label><label>Email: <input type="email" value=""></label><button onclick="handleSubmit>Submit</button>
</form>

<!-- Example two -->
<form>
	<label>Full name: <input type="text" value=""></label><label>Email: <input type="email" value=""></label><button>Submit</button>
</form

Use an Accessible Color Palette:

Bad color contrasts ruin the overall experience for people without disabilities as well as for those with disabilities. So it's important to get the contrast and complementary colors correct when designing your site.

There are tools like contrast checker that help you understand whether your colors contrast enough to be properly visible. Accessible color contrast helps disabled people distinguish between elements on a web page. See below the examples of good and bad color combinations.

Example of good and bad color combination:

Provide Alternatives for Audio and Video Content:

Users who cannot hear or see well might find it difficult to access the audio and video content of a website.

To offer them a better experience, provide transcripts for any audio you use, and add easy-to-read captions on your video content.

Conclusion

Accessible websites are crucial for a good user experience. An accessible website can not only grab new users but it can also encourage old users return over and over again.

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