Website Accessibility
Jun 27, 2023
The number one goal of your website is to deliver information about your business to your customers. In order to be successful in that goal, you must ensure that your content is accessible to all web users, including those with disabilities. Building your web content with accessibility in mind will help to avoid barriers that make your site difficult for certain groups of people to access.
Having an inclusive website also contributes to a strong SEO score. Many of the suggestions below will help search crawlers better index the content on your site. Additionally, search engines won’t rank sites favorably that are not equally accessible to all web users.
The ATLAS team monitors accessibility scores of all sites using Siteimprove. Siteimprove provides an average score for each site based on multiple levels of accessibility conformance. This score is than compared to an industry average. We regularly review these scores to identify global platform enhancements we can make to improve accessibility from a development, UX, and even design stand-point.
Content writing related accessibility items, including text and images, largely falls on you, the website manager and content contributor. Below are some content areas where we commonly see accessibility issues.
Most widgets that call for an image have a field for Image Alt Text (unless the image is considered a background image). Taking the time to fill out this field will help all users understand the value of the image you’ve included.
Each level of accessibility conformance requires a different color contrast ratio. Use a color contrast checker to check your color contrast and how it compares.
Reach out to the ATLAS team with any questions on how to implement these tips into your content management strategy. If you’re interested in your site’s accessibility score, please email atlas@landolakes.com to setup an accessibility review meeting.
Having an inclusive website also contributes to a strong SEO score. Many of the suggestions below will help search crawlers better index the content on your site. Additionally, search engines won’t rank sites favorably that are not equally accessible to all web users.
The ATLAS team monitors accessibility scores of all sites using Siteimprove. Siteimprove provides an average score for each site based on multiple levels of accessibility conformance. This score is than compared to an industry average. We regularly review these scores to identify global platform enhancements we can make to improve accessibility from a development, UX, and even design stand-point.
Content writing related accessibility items, including text and images, largely falls on you, the website manager and content contributor. Below are some content areas where we commonly see accessibility issues.
Image Alt Text
Alt text is used by those who can’t see an image, including search engine crawlers and those accessing the web using a screen reader. This text should describe what the image portrays and most importantly its context to the page it appears on. It should help users understand why the image is there and what it means.Most widgets that call for an image have a field for Image Alt Text (unless the image is considered a background image). Taking the time to fill out this field will help all users understand the value of the image you’ve included.
Headings
Headings are used to organize page content. Visually they help users recognize different sections of a page. For those using screen readers, headings help to organize and navigate page content. The subject of the page should be styled using a Heading 1. The content that follows should be organized by importance using sequentially-descending headers. Avoid using headings for purely stylistic functionality. Instead, format the paragraph text to match the desired heading. Not sure of your heading stylings? Reach out to Atlas for your site’s Care Guide.Color Contrast
Color contrast refers to the difference in color between text and background color. Background color can be controlled in Kentico in a few ways. Feature widgets have specific properties for enabling and changing background color. The Grid section also allows you to enable and change the background color of widgets within that section.Each level of accessibility conformance requires a different color contrast ratio. Use a color contrast checker to check your color contrast and how it compares.
Reach out to the ATLAS team with any questions on how to implement these tips into your content management strategy. If you’re interested in your site’s accessibility score, please email atlas@landolakes.com to setup an accessibility review meeting.