Inclusive Design: Bring Web Accessibility to Your Nonprofit
Web accessibility is a win-win for everyone involved. You improve your user experience and increase your reach and user base, and it is simply the right thing to do.
Web accessibility matters, and for non-profit websites it may matter even more. Yet despite this, only 22% of nonprofits design their websites with visual and hearing disabilities in mind, 20% offer websites in more than one language, and 9% offer voice search as of 2021.
When you start to design your Nonprofit’s website, you should always keep in mind that not everyone who uses your website will be able to operate it like the majority.
What is Website Accessibility?
There are many users out there who suffer from visual, audible, or mechanical disabilities, and they may not be able to easily use your website without virtual assistance. This can come in the form of color-blind coloring options, text-to-speech functions, captioning for audio, or changing the language of a website.
When thinking of ways to improve your website consider the types of obstacles presented to different groups of people.
- The blind may need text-to-speech, navigate by voice, or braille translator API options.
- Those with low vision may need the option to increase the text size.
- Those with learning and cognitive disabilities may need alt-text or other methods to understand what your website is trying to communicate.
- Those with deafness or hearing loss may need volume options or captioning when possible.
- People with motor or physical disabilities would be served better through alternative user input methods like speech-based navigation.
Importance of Web Accessibility for Nonprofits
As a nonprofit, your mission is to communicate an idea or serve a community, which cannot be done without acknowledging that there are those with disabilities. The simple commitment to shared values all but demands that these users be included, and adding web accessibility to your website helps champion your cause, never mind following trends.
Yet it is a trend. Nearly 645,230 unique users used assistive toolbars when visiting charity websites while over 2.26 million websites were viewed through the use of such features.
Gaining support for your cause means reaching as many potential supporters as possible, and to do this you should take people with disabilities into account.
How to make your nonprofit website accessible
- The first step is to plan a budget, gain support, and secure funding by applying for a grant.
- Conduct an accessibility audit. There are several free websites and services online that offer this service. The goal here is to find any area where your website falls short of providing proper web accessibility.
- Train your staff on what web accessibility is and how to implement it. Your staff and you should be on the same page to ensure you have 100% compliance with this new initiative.
- The final step is where it gets tricky because you need to alter your website in several ways. In the beginning, keep it simple, and inexpensive, but be on the lookout for how to make improvements in these areas.
- Descriptive headings – These are headings that ID different sections for your content in relation to the website as a whole, as well as each individual webpage. Each header is descriptive of the contents below it, while each subheader further narrows its description. As an added bonus, this helps with SEO.
- Color contrast – Not everyone sees the same colors as the majority, so making sure you have a color contrast mode is important for those with vision disabilities. Higher contrast is more visible, and building your website’s color code around deeper, more visual hues can help more than you’d think. The most legible is white text on a black background, but combinations of warm and cold colors are usually a good start.
- Consistent Navigation – Navigating your website should be simple, straightforward, and supported by links. As an example, look at a large Wikipedia article, and notice how a table of contents at the top doubles as a quick way to navigate to the part of the article you’re interested in. While your website doesn’t need to use this feature verbatim, being able to quickly get to where you want to go is noticeable, appreciated, and will keep people coming back.
- Accessible Digital Documents and PDFs – Remediate all documents & PDFs to ensure they are easily legible and accessible. If you’re unsure of how to proceed with this, there are services online that will audit, and alter them for maximum accessibility.
Conclusion
Web accessibility is a win-win for everyone involved. You improve your user experience and increase your reach and user base, and it is simply the right thing to do.
It may be a trend, but it will eventually be the norm, and nonprofits should be aware that lacking these functions will soon look as callous as not having wheelchair access. It requires an extra step when making any website, and those extra steps are especially difficult to implement when working on a strict budget with limited time. But more than any other website, nonprofits need to be able to reach as many users as possible, and by not acknowledging those with disabilities, championing your cause can ring hollow.
FAQ
What is inclusive web design?
Inclusive web design is the practice of creating websites that are accessible and usable for as wide an audience as possible, including people with disabilities, those using mobile devices, and users with slow internet connections. It focuses on ensuring that everyone has equal access to information and functionality.
Why is inclusive web design important?
Inclusive web design is important because it recognizes the diversity of users accessing the web, ensuring that digital content is accessible and usable by everyone, regardless of their physical or cognitive abilities. It helps to remove barriers that can prevent people from using and benefiting from the web.
How does inclusive web design benefit businesses?
Inclusive web design expands a business’s reach to a wider audience, improves search engine rankings, enhances the brand’s reputation, and increases customer satisfaction and loyalty. It also reduces the risk of legal issues related to accessibility compliance.
What are the key principles of inclusive web design?
The key principles include providing equitable use, flexibility in use, simple and intuitive use, perceptible information, tolerance for error, low physical effort, and size and space for approach and use. These principles ensure that the design serves a wide range of preferences and abilities.
How can color contrast improve web accessibility?
Color contrast improves web accessibility by making text and other elements stand out against their background, making it easier for people with visual impairments, such as color blindness, to read and understand content.
What role do alternative text descriptions play in inclusive web design?
Alternative text descriptions (alt text) provide a textual alternative to non-text content, such as images. This allows screen readers to describe these elements to visually impaired users, ensuring that all content is accessible to them.
How does responsive design contribute to inclusivity?
Responsive design ensures that websites work well on a variety of devices and screen sizes, from desktop monitors to mobile phones. This flexibility supports inclusivity by accommodating users accessing the web through different technologies.
Why is keyboard navigation important in inclusive web design?
Keyboard navigation is crucial for users who cannot use a mouse due to physical disabilities. Designing for keyboard accessibility allows these users to navigate the website using keyboard commands, ensuring they can access all features and content.
How can testing with real users improve inclusive web design?
Testing with real users, especially those with disabilities, provides direct feedback on the accessibility and usability of a website. This can highlight issues that automated tools might miss and lead to practical improvements in the design.
What are some common tools for assessing the inclusivity of a website’s design?
Tools like the Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool (WAVE), Axe, and Google Lighthouse can assess a website’s accessibility, identifying areas that need improvement. However, these tools should complement, not replace, user testing for a comprehensive evaluation.
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