Mat Marquis’ Post

Struggling with website accessibility for the visually impaired? Discover effective design tips, understand legal standards, and identify helpful tools. #a11y #accessibility https://lnkd.in/e6hk-A8H

Happy Global Accessibility Awareness Day! This day serves to raise awareness of the importance of accessibility in the digital environment. Over 1 billion people worldwide have disabilities, but 96% of homepages fail to meet WCAG 2.0 accessibility standards. Most accessibility improvements are simple, free or low-cost fixes that can have a big impact. MOD's top 10 tips for improving digital accessibility: 1. Use plain language. Plain language is concise, organized, and understandable. 2. Mark the appropriate language in your document's settings so that screen readers know which language (English, Spanish, etc.) they should use. 3. Ask companies for their accessibility statements and conduct user testing when buying new services or software. 4. Use concise headings and a clear heading structure. 5. Use high contrast colors. An online color contrast checker can help. 6. Use meaningful links. Avoid pasting full URLs or hyperlinking generic text like "click here" or "read more" that doesn't tell the reader where the link will take them. 7. Use descriptive alternative text for images. 8. Take advantage of accessibility checkers included in Adobe, Microsoft Office, and other programs. 9. Use closed captioning, ASL interpreters, and audio description for videos. Closed captions, which can be turned on and off, are preferred to open captions. 10. Use simple, editable templates with accessibility baked in (large font sizes, high color contrast, etc.) https://lnkd.in/eZNDRgck

Ensuring compliance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) for websites is crucial for businesses operating in Ontario, Canada. Here are some key considerations for achieving AODA compliance on websites: Understand AODA Requirements: Familiarize yourself with the AODA standards, particularly the Information and Communication Standards. These standards outline specific requirements for accessible websites, including adherence to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level AA. Design with Accessibility in Mind: Ensure your website design considers accessibility from the outset. This includes providing alternatives for non-text content (such as images and videos), ensuring colour contrast for readability, and designing with clear navigation and structure. Provide Accessibility Features: Include accessibility features such as resizable text, adjustable contrast, and the ability to pause or stop moving content to accommodate users with different needs. There are many other guidelines to look into in regards to incorporating accessibility into your website design and development process. Reach out to us if you need some help to ensure you are compliant with AODA standards and to provide an inclusive online experience for all users on your website.

'Disability is what we do to one another' - Dr Shani Dhanda It's Global Accessibility Awareness Day, so I want to remind all of us who work in content and digital that making things accessible is part of our job, every day. Accessibility mistakes disable people and exclude them. Things like missing alt text or captions, low contrast text, overly complicated language, features that don't work with keyboard navigation, and more. The good news is that these things often have simple fixes. So I've got a little challenge for you: spend 5 minutes today learning something new about how to make the web accessible, and commit to putting it into practice. I did this earlier in the week, and found a list of things to fix on my website that I wasn't aware of before. There are some amazing resources out there to help you, including: WebAIM's beginner-friendly Introduction to Web Accessibility covers accessibility principles, guidelines, laws, tools, and testing https://webaim.org/intro/ AbilityNet's free resources https://lnkd.in/ecmpas7q Lisa Riemers' list of accessibility resources for content people https://lnkd.in/ef9vFJ3j Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)'s international standards for making web content accessible https://lnkd.in/ecVtVeq4 #accessibility #GlobalAccessibilityAwarenessDay

Out as of last week, the 2024 Web Almanac! This year, the Accessibility Chapter is back, thanks to Mike Gifford, CPWA, and it is full of useful nuggets of information. Two things that especially stood out to me: - government design systems are correlated with government website accessibility (with shoutout to NL Design System) - the importance of authoring content accessibly (proud to see W3C's ATAG Report Tool mentioned there) You can read the chapter: https://lnkd.in/eUhdy8qQ

Hey Amber, you've given five great considerations there. I've been immersed in #digitalinclusivity these past months and learning a lot especially from Lawrence Shaw and Gareth Ford Williams. For anyone who wants a quick reality check there are many testing tools out there. I use https://aaatraq.com/check/ because it's based on tried-and-tested technology and I've known Lawrence, and his company, for more than 20 years. It's Global Accessibility Awareness Day #GAAD tomorrow. Why not do something about it today? Remember, digital inclusion is so much more than accessibility. Gareth just reposted his old article which has great detail on designing for #Neurodiversity - likely to help a fair chunk of your online audience (think ADHD, Dyslexia and much more). https://lnkd.in/eDAiPRkU And finally, Six ways to sustainably improve accessibility on your site from Bowen Craggs. https://lnkd.in/emBZTTpK ❓What are you doing about DIGITAL INCLUSION? Comment below please.

This is very interesting. It also highlights the need for organisations to properly Test their applications around these accessibility requirements, something that often gets bypassed. When you think about the increase in #AI generated code, how are organisations going to balance the volume of code with these needs? Why do I ask? Well funnily enough here at Digital.ai we have capabilities to help enterprises build, automate and scale tests that will help them achieve #compliance Interested? 🤔 Feel free to ask, I'll be happy to show you! 😉

Ensuring compliance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) for websites is crucial for businesses operating in Ontario, Canada. Here are some key considerations for achieving AODA compliance on websites: Understand AODA Requirements: Familiarize yourself with the AODA standards, particularly the Information and Communication Standards. These standards outline specific requirements for accessible websites, including adherence to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level AA. Design with Accessibility in Mind: Ensure your website design considers accessibility from the outset. This includes providing alternatives for non-text content (such as images and videos), ensuring colour contrast for readability, and designing with clear navigation and structure. Provide Accessibility Features: Include accessibility features such as resizable text, adjustable contrast, and the ability to pause or stop moving content to accommodate users with different needs. There are many other guidelines to look into in regards to incorporating accessibility into your website design and development process. Reach out to us if you need some help to ensure you are compliant with AODA standards and to provide an inclusive online experience for all users on your website.

Ensuring compliance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) for websites is crucial for businesses operating in Ontario, Canada. Here are some key considerations for achieving AODA compliance on websites: Understand AODA Requirements: Familiarize yourself with the AODA standards, particularly the Information and Communication Standards. These standards outline specific requirements for accessible websites, including adherence to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level AA. Design with Accessibility in Mind: Ensure your website design considers accessibility from the outset. This includes providing alternatives for non-text content (such as images and videos), ensuring colour contrast for readability, and designing with clear navigation and structure. Provide Accessibility Features: Include accessibility features such as resizable text, adjustable contrast, and the ability to pause or stop moving content to accommodate users with different needs. There are many other guidelines to look into in regards to incorporating accessibility into your website design and development process. Reach out to us if you need some help to ensure you are compliant with AODA standards and to provide an inclusive online experience for all users on your website.

For Global Accessibility Awareness Day this year, The Admin Bar's Amber Hinds participated in a panel discussion with several colleagues, including Nick Corbett, Accessibility Training and Research Coordinator at The Carroll Center for the Blind. During the panel discussion, an attendee asked, “What are the top four ways websites can be made more accessible?” There were four panelists, so we decided to each say one thing that majorly impacts website accessibility. Nick said one of the most important ways you can ensure the accessibility of your website is by including a meaningful and accurate page title. Below, we discuss what we mean by "page title," how meta titles cannot replace HTML titles, and how to write quality page titles: https://lnkd.in/dFDYDdQe