How to maintain your website’s accessibility

In this free webinar, we discussed the development of web accessibility and how to make sure your website remains as accessible as possible.

A silver laptop opened up, sitting on a wooden desk, with gold decorations and a small plant in the background.

Accessibility is often one of the central priorities for our arts and cultural clients when briefing for a new website. But how can you make sure that it remains accessible as technologies evolve beyond launch?

In this session, on Thursday 23rd May at 10:30am UK time, we explored:

  • Why web accessibility is a continual process
  • How to review your website’s accessibility
  • The key principles to maintaining an accessible website

Throughout the webinar, welcomed questions from participants to ensure you are able to get the best possible information for you and your organisation. We also included a dedicated Q&A session at the end of the webinar.

During the webinar’s Q&A, we received too many questions to fit into the hour-long session. However, we’ve answered your remaining questions and linked in some extra resources for maintaining an accessible website below.

Question 1: What would you recommend to improve accessibility to an UX designer designing on Figma? Any plugins? Of course, proper user research and testing but would you recommend any other resources?

In all cases user testing should be the priority if you have the resources or budget but there are some plugins that can help your design process in Figma and Adobe.

Here are some accessibility plugins in Figma for usability:

  • A11y – A colour contrast checker.
  • Stark – Mainly for checking colour contrast but also gives you tools to check typography size and family, add alt text to your wireframes, Test touch targets you’ve created, Test the focus order, landmarks and a vision simulator.
  • Include – An accessibility kit that helps to annotate accessibility considerations in your Figma files to make it easier to communicate elements with stakeholders.

In Adobe, we recommend this colour contrast analyser.

Question 2: Can you test screen readers yourself? How do you access them?

Yes, there are a range of screen readers available, we use NVDA which you can download onto your computer and use, there should also be a native reader on most devices. NVDA is a globally used and recognised reader. 

To test the content, try to think about different actions that the user might need to take and test them with your keyboard.  Navigate through the UI, listen to the feedback and adjust accordingly. Check that it navigates to different buttons and links. Do the contact forms announce if there is an error when entering information and is Alt text read out correctly?

You can download NVDA here.

Question 3: Language: we have many resources on our website, written by external contributors, which can cover complex topics – are we supposed to  change language to make it readable for a certain reading age?  This feels like an impossible task…

It can be tricky to adapt your website for all needs, but try to focus on making the site as flexible as possible so that users can use your content as they need. To do this, make sure you:

  • Use plain language to make it as concise as possible and avoid jargon.
  • Try to provide key takeaways and reinforce important information.
  • Use visual aids like infographics where necessary.
  • As with most content, follow a logical and clear heading hierarchy to make it easier to follow.
  • If you have the resources, you can audit the site specifically for those language needs and do readability tests or even include glossaries and tooltips for specific content on your website.

Question 4: Is there a way that is best to reach the right people for user testing? Like maybe a call out?

It would be best to ask for guidance from an accessibility consultant initially, we work with Accessible By Design. It would then be beneficial to engage with some local networks and offer the users something in return for their time.

Question 5: Just one quick question: are emojis a nightmare for screen readers?

Emojis can cause some problems for screen reader users such as the following:

  • Redundancy – some emojis can cause redundancy which means that if there are a series of smiley face emojis they might be read aloud as ‘Smiling face’ which can be tedious and distracting for the user. 
  • Misinterpretation: Emojis with complex or less common meanings might be interpreted differently by screen readers, leading to confusion.

There are some options to mitigate this…

  • Some screen readers allow users to customise how emojis are handled, such as by skipping them or providing brief descriptions.
  • Developers can include alt text or ARIA labels for emojis to provide clearer descriptions, though this is not always commonly implemented.

Additional Resources

Accessibility standards and guidelines

Checking your website’s accessibility

Examples of Alt text and PDFs

Accessibility consultants

Still curious? Learn more:

Speakers

  • Antonia Johnston
    Antonia JohnstonProject Manager
  • Victoria Knights
    Victoria KnightsWeb Support Coordinator
  • Hans de Kretser
    Hans de KretserDirector

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