Every web owner wishes to reach the highest number of people possible, but you need accessible design and content to achieve it. However, a quarter of all adults in the United States have a disability, and more people prefer user-friendly websites. More importantly, digital accessibility is a civil right and an ethical requirement. It is also frequently a legal requirement due to civil rights legislation such as the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
So, websites should be accessible to all
users, regardless of their abilities. But, the real question is how to achieve
this objective. In the 1990s, technology companies offered third-party web
products like accessibility overlay tools that add accessibility features to
existing sites without modifying the source code. Some of these overlays
include text-to-speech functionality that reads page content aloud. Controls
that let users resize text or change color schemes are others.
These accessibility overlay plugins appear to
be beneficial, but in practice, they can be insufficient or even frustrating
for the users they are attempting to serve. Auto-generated alt text, for
example, is frequently strange and irrelevant, causing more confusion than
clarity for people who use screen readers. In addition, adjusted keyboard
navigation occasionally fails, and some user interface control panels interfere
with screen readers, braille devices, and other assistive technology.
A
Better Approach to Website Accessibility
The WCAG guidelines' authors organize their
standards around four overarching principles. Accessible content must be
perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.
Web designers may find it difficult to build
to WCAG standards; after all, they include well over 80 success criteria.
However, with the proper testing protocols, accessibility overlay tools can
continue to help improve your websites for as long as they are online. As
stated by the Auditor in their legal exhibit, no automated software can detect
every WCAG violation. Instead, a combination of testing software and human
testers representing a diverse audience provides the best visibility into
accessibility issues. So, once you have identified the problems, you can
resolve them.
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