Top Challenges in Website Accessibility and Fixes – AccessiBe

Web accessibility makes the websites browsable and usable for all, including people with disabilities. The Americans with Disabilities Act 1970 mandates that all public assets be accessible to everyone irrespective of their abilities, skills, and knowledge. At the time of the initiation of this law, it was more about the public utilities and facilities. Still, as the internet became the mainstream over the last couple of decades, accessibility applies to websites and other online utilities.

But the fact is that about 90% of the websites online are not compliant with the accessibility needs even now. People with disabilities struggle to navigate or do transactions on these websites properly. Many web application developers and designers tend to do things conventionally and are either unaware of or careless about the accessibility needs. This article will discuss some of the significant challenges in website accessibility and the fixes.

AccessiBe accessibility challenges

AccessiBe is a professional service provider specializing in accessibility compliance for websites and applications. Below listed are a few significant accessibility challenges noted by the company experts, which, if taken care of well, can be a solid basement for website accessibility compliance.

• Alt text

Even though people are aware of it, one major challenge in accessibility compliance is the missing alt text for media. About 65% of the website have lost or impaired alt text for images and media. This is a big concern in terms of accessibility compliance. If the image is relevant to convey a message to the user, it must be specified through alt text so that people with vision problems can understand the context and message clearly. If the image is simply a decorative element, alt text is unnecessary. However, it is advisable to have appropriate alt text for all images to be fully compliant.

• Low contrast text

Another top challenge found in terms of accessibility compliance is the low contrast of text color. This is noted to be a problem for 85% of the web pages evaluated for accessibility non-compliance. As per the guidelines of WCAG, the contract for web page text should be in a 4.5:1 ratio. This will help make text easily discernable for all types of users, including those with color blindness.

• Link text missing

There are many accessibility considerations to make while setting uplinks. When it comes to accessibility needs, links are considered an important thing. We use links to land on the website pages and move inside the sites. Sometimes, the link may be taking you to a totally another website. If the link is not specified with the information where it leads, it will be challenging to meet the accessibility compliance. All the links on your website should be checked for accessibility compliance. Link test should be made explanatory as to where it leads to.

The website developer usually overlooks these aspects of accessibility compliance. For the websites, which want to audit and assure accessibility compliance, AccessiBe offers cost-effective solutions for the same.