Accessibility-First Design: Why It’s Time to Put Everyone First

Picture this: You’ve spent months perfecting your website, ensuring it’s visually stunning, packed with valuable content, and fully functional. But there’s a catch. Not everyone can access it the way you intended. Whether it’s due to visual, auditory, motor, or cognitive impairments, millions of people face barriers when trying to navigate websites that weren’t built with accessibility in mind.

Now, imagine if your website could be just as easy to use for someone with a disability as it is for someone without. Accessibility-first design makes that possible. By prioritizing accessibility from the start, you can create a website that not only meets the needs of a broader audience but also elevates the user experience for everyone.

Why Accessibility-First Design is Essential for Your Business

You’re building a website to represent your brand, promote your services, or sell your products, so why not make sure it works for everyone? Accessibility-first design isn’t just about ticking off a compliance checklist. It's about creating a website that functions for all users and offering tangible benefits for your business.

1. Reach a Larger Audience

There are over 1 billion people globally who have some form of disability. By ensuring your website is accessible, you’re opening up your business to this wide and often underserved audience. When your website accommodates people who rely on screen readers, need larger fonts, or navigate with keyboard-only input, you're ensuring that no one is left behind.

2. Improved User Experience (UX)

Accessibility-first design is about making the user experience smoother and more intuitive. Features like clear typography, easy navigation, and high contrast are not only useful for those with disabilities; they enhance usability for everyone. The easier and more intuitive your site is, the more likely users are to stay engaged and convert.

3. SEO Benefits

Accessibility can also improve your website’s SEO. When you implement accessible design features such as providing alt text for images, using proper headings, and ensuring a clean code structure, it makes your content more understandable for search engines. And as an added bonus, these same features improve the experience for all your visitors, which search engines love.

4. Legal Compliance

Accessibility is becoming a growing legal requirement in many regions, including the U.S. and Europe. Websites that fail to meet accessibility standards (such as WCAG or ADA compliance) are at risk of facing legal challenges. By taking an accessibility-first approach, you can help avoid potential legal issues while ensuring your website is usable by everyone.

The Core Principles of Accessibility-First Design

At the heart of an accessibility-first approach are four key principles. Here’s how we can help integrate these concepts into your website for maximum impact.

1. Perceivability: Make Your Content Visible and Audible

Making content perceivable to all users is essential. We start by ensuring that images, videos, and text are accessible in multiple ways:

• Alt Text for Images: Descriptive alt text makes sure that all images are understood by screen readers. A simple description like "A person holding a steaming cup of coffee on a rainy morning" can go a long way to make sure your content is accessible to all.
• Captions and Transcripts for Media: Adding captions to videos and providing transcripts for audio content ensures that users who are deaf or hard of hearing can engage with your site, while also making it more useful in other environments (like noisy or quiet spaces).
• Color Contrast: Ensuring good contrast between text and background colors makes your site more readable, especially for users with visual impairments.

2. Operability: Keep It Clickable, Tappable, or Tab-able

Your website needs to be accessible not only for mouse users but for anyone who navigates with a keyboard, voice commands, or other assistive devices. Key accessibility features include:

• Keyboard Accessibility: Ensuring that your website is fully navigable with just the keyboard is crucial for many users. We make sure all interactive elements like buttons, forms, and links are accessible via the Tab key, so no one gets stuck.
• Focus Indicators: These help users keep track of where they are on a page. Adding visual indicators (like a highlight when a button or link is selected) helps users navigate with ease.
• Accessible Forms: Forms are an essential part of many websites, but they need to be accessible for all users. We ensure that all form fields are clearly labeled and easy to use, especially for those relying on screen readers.

3. Understandability: Clear, Simple Content

Accessible websites are simple to navigate and easy to understand. This is where content strategy plays a big role in improving your website's usability:

• Readable Fonts and Text Sizes: We help ensure that fonts are legible and properly sized (at least 16px for body text), which benefits both those with visual impairments and those who simply prefer larger text.
• Plain Language: We recommend to our creative agency partners to use clear, concise language that avoids jargon or overly complex terms, making your content easy to understand for all users.
• Clear and Descriptive Link Text: Links like "click here" are ambiguous and unhelpful for users relying on assistive technologies, as they lack context when read out of place. Instead, use descriptive text that clearly indicates the purpose or destination of the link. For example, "Learn more by reading the Accessibility Guide (PDF)" provides users with clarity about where the link leads. This approach enhances navigation for all users and improves the overall accessibility of your website.
• Consistent Navigation: A consistent layout helps users find their way around with ease. Whether it's menu items, buttons, or page structure, we help ensure that your website follows a logical pattern that helps users know what to expect.

4. Robustness: Ensuring Long-Term Compatibility

Your website needs to function well with both current and future technologies. To ensure this, we:

• Use Semantic HTML: We use well-structured code that makes your site accessible not only to users but also to search engines and assistive technologies like screen readers.
• Stay Up to Date: Accessibility standards evolve, and so does technology. We help you stay on top of updates to ensure that your site continues to meet accessibility standards over time.

Why Accessibility-First Design Should Be a Priority for Your Business

Building an accessible website goes beyond just ticking legal boxes or meeting minimum requirements. It’s about crafting an experience that welcomes all users, expands your reach, and drives deeper engagement. Accessibility-first design isn’t about a complete redesign; instead, it focuses on thoughtful, strategic improvements that enhance both usability and site performance.

By applying these principles, you’ll not only make your website more inclusive, but you’ll also enhance the overall experience for all users, regardless of their abilities. And the best part? Many of these changes can help boost your SEO, increase user engagement, and improve conversion rates.

Ready to Build a More Inclusive Website?

At 3|SHARE, we specialize in helping businesses design and build websites that are accessible, user-friendly, and future-proof. If you're ready to take the next step and create a website that serves everyone, we’d love to help guide you through the process.

Accessibility-first design is a smart, long-term investment for your website, your audience, and your brand. Let’s make sure your digital presence works for all users, today and in the future.

Get in touch with us today.