How they see and access your site
Who They? and how to improve your web application
The main idea behind this article is to provide you with open source tools that will help to improve the web accessibility of your application to attract more audiences.
What is web accessibility and who is the target?
The simple idea of web accessibility was to enable anyone with/without a disability to access all the content in the application without any difficulty.
Key questions you should ask yourself
- Can you access everything on your site without looking but listening?
- Can you access your site without a mouse?
- Is the font size big enough?
- Does background and foreground colours contrast enough?
well if your answer to all the questions is ‘Yes’ you have done a great job. well done.
If your answer is ‘No’ or you have ‘No idea’ then it's time you test your application.
So Testing the application can be done by hiring a professional or by yourself. Bellow tools are Free or open source for you to give it a go.
Can you access everything on your site without looking but listening?
You have to use and accessablitiy testing tool for this so currently most used ones are JAWS and NVDA.
Instead of JAWS you can use NVDA. This is free and open source.
Tips: using this mainly on the firefox browser as it works better on it( Try the Caps + f7 keys and you will never forget)
Can you access your site without a mouse?
- Is the font size big enough?
Both the above questions can be answered using this tool.
Use the Axe to identify issues, this will let you know all the issues on the page which needs to be addressed.
Tips: Well this is my favourite tool in accessablitiy so far.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/axe-devtools-web-accessib/lhdoppojpmngadmnindnejefpokejbdd
Does background and foreground colours contrast enough?
well, there are many tools for this. including dev tools inbuilt in firefox as well but the most reliable one and used in Gov site testings will be the Colour Contrast Analyser tool.
https://www.tpgi.com/color-contrast-checker/
Can use this to get the contrast online itself.
Can use the colour contrast analyser tool from chrome as well
Finally
This is not it. There is much more work to do to improve your application. but the first step is always the hardest and hope this article will guide you on how to take that first step.
