Making websites more usable to the visually impaired

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According to the World Health Organisation, it is estimated that 285 million people worldwide have a visual impairment which runs the spectrum of total blindness, through various degrees of reduced sight, colour impairment, tunnel vision and so on.

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs282/en/

Whilst approximately 90% live in low-income settings, 82% are in the 50+ age bracket.

Why does this matter?

Visually impaired people living in wealthier settings are very heavy users of the internet and of digital commerce. Why? Because most don’t/can’t drive and find it easier to buy products and services online especially when they can find good information and descriptions.

If your target market is the over 50’s, you should probably take this even more seriously.

Below, are some initial things to consider when designing a website which will help considerably and are probably enough to “get you over the bar”.

However, if this is something you want to fully implement, consult the W3 web standards

www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/

Basics

Many of the elements here are actually just good practice for website creators, but they will have significant impacts on the usability of website for visually impaired users – especially those using screen reader software.

  • -Structure - use shortcut keys, headings, paragraphs and bulleted lists.
  • -Avoid “click here” links – instead use a description that actually tells the user what the link does – example “<Click here> to contact us” would be better implemented as “<Contact us>” where the <-> represents the link itself. A series of links are often used without the context of the surrounding text on the site.
  • -Good coding – use descriptive and informative alt-text on links, images and other items as this is the text used by most access software.

Text zoom

In some cases, making the text size a little larger is all you need to do, but you might want to consider allowing for text-only zoom – I.E., the text size increases without distorting the overall layout of the site.

Colour contrast

For many, contrast is the key to a relaxed browsing experience. Often, sites will offer a second version where contrast is greater and key elements that are less striking should be bolded.

Colour choice

Remember, some users may have variable levels of colour perception, so avoid relying on colours too heavily for website operation and try to avoid overly colourful websites where the pallet is too diverse.

Text only and mobile sites

Allowing users to access a text-only version or simply the mobile version of your site might cut down visual clutter. Also, be mindful of complex coding and use of Java and other processor intensive plugins.

I realise that, for most, this is not an aspect that will immediately spring to mind when designing a website. You can implement some very easy measures (informative alt-text and media tags etc.) very easily and may make the difference to a lot of users.

Ultimately, it will be your choice, but consider whether you might be restricting your website traffic by not implementing at least some of the above.

And maybe, it is just the right thing to do?

Hope you found this interesting,

Al

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Recent Comments

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Hi Al, I did not know about W3 web standards...your blog is an eye opener, thank you. The standards are very helpful, not only with website developments considering visually impaired...
Cheers from Frederick

This is informative. Thanks

Thanks for reading - Al

Great post Al, accessibility is something we should be keeping in mind and implementing.

Thanks HarvyBrown. I guess it could be considered as a matter of conscience, but one point I was trying to make is that if your target audience is likely to have a proportion of visually impaired (over 50s for example), then you might be missing a market opportunity.

Great points, thanks for sharing them :)

You're welcome and thanks for reading

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