What is Website Accessibility?
When you think of “accessibility” the first thing that comes to mind might be wheelchair ramps or screen readers, but have you ever thought of website accessibility? Accessibility Coach, Tom Emola, explained how properly coded websites allow all users to navigate and experience a website to the fullest extent. This means making sure that at all types of digital content including Word, PowerPoint, Excel, PDFs, eBooks, & multimedia content, are accessible on your website. What many people are unaware of is how many different disabilities website accessibility affects. The disabilities impacted by this include cognitive disabilities, voice disabilities, hearing disabilities, seeing disabilities, motor impairments, or a combination of these disabilities. For example, an individual who is color blind may not be able to see the text on a page due to the color contrasts, or an individual who is blind may not be able to receive the same experience from a picture because there is no alternate text. Simple elements of a website that many people are able to enjoy without the use of special features, others are not.