The typical internet user now spends over 40% of their waking life online. For many of us, that’s because we use the internet and apps as easy and hassle-free tools for completing daily tasks, communicating with loved ones, and conducting extensive research into hobbies, activities, entertainment, and leisure pursuits, etc.

Can you imagine not having access to all the websites and apps you need to make that possible? That’s the exact reality people face when your website is inaccessible. 

Website Accessibility Barriers Explained

An online barrier will occur whenever an element of a website’s design or presentation makes it difficult to read or interact with the content. Users usually struggle for one of four main reasons.

Reading

• People with vision problems like partial blindness, colour blindness, and deafblindness cannot read information online when the font type, sizing, and spacing are unsuitable.
• Those with severe visual impairments need to use a screen reader to have content read aloud.
• Users with learning difficulties like dyslexia, dyspraxia, and hyperlexia struggle with reading due to insufficient colour contrasts between the text and background.

Comprehension and Understanding

• Website visitors who speak English as a second language may need translation assistance to comprehend content.
• Those with hearing impairments are denied audio information when on-page video content is not presented with captions.
• Visually impaired users may struggle to find context when images are missing suitably descriptive alt tags.

Navigating the Platform

• People with cognitive and neurological disorders cannot follow the flow of information if a website isn’t clearly written and doesn’t run in a logical order.
• Website visitors with learning difficulties like ADHD cannot find the information they need on poorly formatted web pages.
• Those with physical disabilities may be unable to find their way around your website if keyboard navigation isn’t an option.

Trust Barriers

• Site visitors with epilepsy and other conditions that cause disorientation and confusion could be triggered into a seizure by fast-moving image carousels and videos.
• Those who already feel marginalised in life will simply click away from a website as soon as they realise it’s incompatible with their needs, further compounding their vulnerability.