Accessibility

Our Accessibility Standards

For our digital products, we aim to meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA standards. These guidelines provide a wide range of recommendations for making web content more accessible. Meeting these standards ensures that our digital products are usable by people with various disabilities.

Why Accessibility Matters

1. Inclusivity: Accessibility allows people with various disabilities—such as visual, auditory, cognitive, and motor impairments—to use digital products effectively.
2. Legal Compliance: Many countries have laws and regulations that require digital content to be accessible. Adhering to these standards helps avoid legal issues.
3. Better User Experience: Accessible design often leads to a better overall user experience, benefiting all users, not just those with disabilities.
4. Wider Audience: By making your content accessible, you reach a broader audience, including older adults and people with temporary disabilities.

Key Principles of Accessible Design

1. Perceivable: Information and user interface components must be presented in ways that users can perceive. This includes providing text alternatives for non-text content and ensuring sufficient color contrast.
2. Operable: User interface components and navigation must be operable. This means making all functionality available from a keyboard and providing users enough time to read and use content.
3. Understandable: Information and the operation of the user interface must be understandable. This involves making text readable and predictable, and helping users avoid and correct mistakes.
4. Robust: Content must be robust enough to be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies.

Practical Tips for Accessible Design

Design Tips:

1. Provide Sufficient Contrast: Ensure that text and interactive elements have enough contrast against their backgrounds to be readable by users with low vision.
2. Use Clear and Consistent Navigation: Make navigation easy to understand and consistent across our site and dashboard to help users find what they need.
3. Label Form Elements Clearly: Ensure that all form elements have clear and descriptive labels to help users understand what information is required.
4. Avoid Using Color Alone to Convey Information: Use additional indicators like text or symbols to convey information, not just color.
5. Consistent Layouts: Use consistent layouts and design patterns across our site to help users predict where to find information and how to navigate.
6. Readable Fonts: Choose readable fonts and ensure text size is adjustable. Avoid using overly decorative fonts that can be hard to read.
7. Responsive Typography: Implement responsive typography that adjusts to different screen sizes and resolutions, making text easier to read on all devices.
8. Descriptive Link Text: Use descriptive link text that clearly indicates the destination or action, rather than generic text like "click here."
9. Accessible Color Schemes: Offer alternative color schemes, such as high-contrast modes, to accommodate users with visual impairments.
10. Avoid Auto-Playing Media: Avoid auto-playing audio or video content. If necessary, provide controls to pause, stop, or adjust the volume.
11. Accessible Animations: Use animations sparingly and ensure they do not cause motion sickness or distract users. Provide options to disable animations if needed.
12. Clear Instructions: Provide clear instructions and feedback for interactive elements, such as forms and buttons, to guide users through tasks.

Development Tips:

1. Keyboard Focus and Accessibility: Ensure that all interactive elements can be accessed and operated using a keyboard. This includes providing visible focus indicators and logical tab order.
2. Use Semantic HTML: Use appropriate HTML elements like <button> for buttons and <a> for links to ensure that assistive technologies can interpret them correctly.
3. Accessible Form Fields: Ensure that all form fields have associated <label> elements and use ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) attributes where necessary to provide additional context.
4. ARIA Roles and Properties: Use ARIA roles, properties, and states to enhance the accessibility of dynamic content and complex UI components.
5. Skip Navigation Links: Provide skip navigation links to allow users to bypass repetitive content and navigate directly to the main content.
6. Responsive Design: Ensure that your design is responsive and works well on various devices and screen sizes, including screen readers and other assistive technologies.