Web accessibility should be considered at every step by developers and organizations. “Almost everyone will temporarily or permanently experience disability at some point in their life.” – WHO
The web should aim to be accessible to everyone by removing barriers to interaction and communication that many people with different abilities face in the physical world.
“Web accessibility means that websites, tools, and technologies are designed and developed so that people with disabilities can use them. More specifically, people can: perceive, understand, navigate, interact and contribute to the Web.” –W3C
Now that you’ve read my short introduction to Web accessibility, I’m just going to list a few tools I usually use to create websites as accessible as possible.
- W3C, Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) – https://www.w3.org/WAI/fundamentals/ – This website is a reliable platform that will introduce you to accessibility, it includes a variety of sections including digital accessibility courses, perspective videos and components of web accessibility.
- WAVE, Web accessibility evaluation tool – https://wave.webaim.org/ – This is a great tool to evaluate your web content. It will show errors and recommendations. Just paste your web page address and you’ll see what areas you can improve on your website to make it more accessible.
- Coolors – https://coolors.co/ – I visit this website quite often as it has some great tools that guide me to choose a nice colour palette and to understand how my colour choices can affect people with different types of colour blindness. The tools I use the most are the Palette Generator, the Image Picker and the Contrast Checker.
- Tink – https://tink.uk/ – Leonie Watson’s blog has articles that will help you to understand different topics about accessibility and she writes about her very own experience. In case you’re not familiar with Leonie, she’s a member of the W3C Advisory Board and a member of the BIMA Inclusive Design Council.
Those are some of the digital platforms I like using when building a project or a new website. Let me know if you would like me to post another article talking about other helpful tools available.
Have a look at my previous post about UX Research and Design.