© Ralph Aichinger, CC BY 2.0

10 Principles of Accessibility

Do you want to get serious about accessibility, but finding it hard to know where to start? Here are 10 principles you can use to get started creating great accessible websites and mobile interfaces right now.

1. There are four major types of disability — visual, hearing, motor and cognitive. As a beginner, understanding the wide variety of disabilities can get overwhelming. A useful place to start is with visual disability. A majority of accessibility issues can be addressed by accounting for blindness.
2. Remember to create good alt text (text that describes images). When writing alt text, aim to describe the information in the picture, rather than describing the picture. The alt text depends on the purpose of the image. If the image is purely decorative, you can describe it in a generic way. If the picture is essential to understanding the context, then be as precise as possible.
3. Hamburger menus are not accessible, as screen readers usually skip over them. However, if you tag hamburger menus properly, screen readers won’t skip over them.
4. Don’t place important content out of the way where screen readers won’t find it.
5. You have to test for accessibility with real users to help reveal gaps in accessibility. Even if you test your designs with evaluation tools and checkers, it is imperative to test with real people.
6. Don’t disable zoom in mobile interfaces as it ends up locking out users with low vision.
7. Accessibility is cheaper when it’s done up front — and easily learned. Factor in accessibility early on, in both design and implementation, instead of retrofitting it.
8. Be aware of visual bias, but remember that accessibility does not mean ugly design, especially if you design with accessibility from the very beginning.
9. Check mobile accessibility separately. This ties in with principle #4. Often responsive sites can push important content out of the way or reorder elements in a way that becomes confusing or inaccessible, even for sighted users.
10. Embrace the all-access attitude. People are the first consideration of design, and you must design for everyone in your audience.

Where to Learn More

Course: Accessibility — How to Design for All:
https://www.interaction-design.org/courses/accessibility-how-to-design-for-all

Originally published at https://www.interaction-design.org.