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Article StatusEarly Draft (Expect further updates)
Every public or staff-facing web page in the UK, EU and many other regions are required to meet minimum accessibility standards. The general requirement is usually WCAG 2.2 AA (or the current version).
WarningThis is often a legal requirement, not just a moral one.
It isn’t always easy to meet these requirements but some of the tools listed here may be of help.
Page structure
This is by no means a complete list. I may extend it from time-to-time. These are just a few of the basics.
- Must only have a single
h1
tag. hx
tags should be in the correct order and correctly nested, no out-of-order headings.- Every input should have a label.
- Every image must have an
alt
attribute. - Keep the font sizes reasonably large. I set the base font size to 110%.
- Do not use fixed pixel sizing for anything unless you absolutely have to. Doing so restricts the users ability to alter sizing to meet their own accessibility needs.
- Watch out for colour contrast levels. Grey-on-grey is a daft idea! Use an accessibility checker
- … lots more, check the standard for details.
Tools for checking/testing
-
Chromium-based browsers have the “Lighthouse” tool as part of the Developer Tools. This performs a sub-set of accessibility checks amongst other things.
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Siteimprove Accessibility Checker browser extension. “This free extension lets you check any multi-step form, dynamic content, or non-public page for accessibility issues.”
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Accessibility Insights for Web - Extension for Chromium-based browsers that helps developers find and fix accessibility issues in web apps and sites.
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WAVE by WebAIM - A browser extension that shows a side-panel indicating page structure, aria use and any issues.
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A simple CSS-based bookmarklet to check if any ARIA roles have been duplicated
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https://thepaciellogroup.github.io/WAI-ARIA-Usage/WAI-ARIA_usage.html - a bookmarklet for checking ARIA usage on a page.