Accessibility Options

Providing an Accessibility Page

It is a good idea to include an 'accessibility' link from your home page to a page that explains:

  • Your commitment to making your website accessible
  • Any accessibility features you have developed
  • How to access alternatives to any inaccessible content
  • What your accessibility policy is, including intended conformance levels
  • Who to contact for any disability related access issues.

You can also include information that explains how users can customise their browser and preferences.

Juicy Studio provide an article on Writing a Good Accessibility Statement.

User Settings

Many Internet users are unaware of how to change the settings in their browsers to make your site more accessible. If your website explains to users how they can choose combinations of fonts, typefaces and background colours settings to suit them, they can optimise their experience.

The BBC offer an excellent resource of information about how users can customise their own settings , you may want to refer users to their website rather than duplicate similar information.

Site Settings

If you use separate content from presentation by using style sheets on your website to control the look and feel, then it is easy for users to adjust settings to suit their preferences. You can also provide several alternate style sheets such as high contrast and large text. You can allow users access to these style sheets by providing links on the home page (as seen in the screenshot) or on the accessibility page.

Access Keys

Access keys are keyboard shortcuts that can be used to access important menus and links. Holding down a combination of keys jumps you to a particular part of the webpage. You should consider whether these would be a useful addition to your website. If you do use them you need to supply a list of access keys that are available (on your accessibility page), and ensure that the keys used do not conflict with common system keyboard shortcuts or screen reader commands.

You should also check that the tab order of the links on your website displays the most important links first.

The article 'Accesskeys: Unlocking Hidden Navigation' discusses the best way they can be used, and gives implementation tips.

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