Accessibility

Everyone deserves easy access to the internet.

The internet gives millions of people access to information.

When websites and web tools are properly designed and developed with accessibility in mind, people with disabilities can use them. However, currently many websites and services are developed with accessibility barriers that make them difficult or impossible for some people to use.

The Web must be accessible to provide equal access and equal opportunity to people with disabilities.

96.8% of the world's top one million websites don't offer full accessibility.
Source: The WebAIM Million Project, WebAIM, 2022 .

So what about web content, that's the documents that we access on the web. Whilst it is improving, there's still significant work to be done.

42.3% of respondants believe that web content accessibility has not changed, and 18.5% of respondants think the web has become less accessible.
Source: Screen Reader User Survey #9, WebAIM, 2021 .

Web accessibility progress.

We're continuing to push for full web accessibility - where anyone from any background can access any website and use it as intended, and we've made some progress.

Full web accessibility has increased by 0.62% since 2021 amongst the world's top one million websites.
Source: The WebAIM Million Project, WebAIM, 2022 .

Developers: How you can make your websites better.

Alternative Text for Images

Not only does this help people who need screenreaders, but it also helps people who have slower internet connections that can't load images.
<img src="dog.jpg" alt="Picture of a dog">

ARIA Attributes

People who use screen readers can't see icons. Decorative icons should be hidden, non-decorative icons should be labelled.
<i class="fa-solid fa-universal-access" aria-hidden="true">
<i class="fa-solid fa-universal-access" aria-label="Accessibility">

Meaningful Links

Screen readers can't tell what a link does if it just says "click here". These should be changed or labelled.
<a href="/dogs">Click here to go to the page about dogs.</a>
<a href="/dogs" aria-label="Dogs page link.">Click here.</a>

HTML Regions

Regions help screen reader users to navigate your website.
<main>Main content section.</main>
<header>Website page header.</header>
<nav>A navigation bar.</nav>
<footer>Website footer.</footer>

Contrast Ratio
Ensure website content has an acceptable contrast ratio so that people with eyesight difficulties can still read your website well.
Consider adding a colour blindness mode if your website relies on colours.