By Keira Collin
The internet is a powerful tool that has revolutionized how we do business, learn new skills, and stay in touch with friends. The web’s accessibility to everyone has made it an invaluable resource for people all over the world. But not everyone can enjoy the benefits of this wonderful invention equally due to physical impairments or cognitive disabilities.
To ensure that every person on earth can access your website, you need to implement accessiBe WordPress. In addition, you need to know about Website Accessibility Best Practices – guidelines set by WCAG 2.0 designed to ensure equal access for people with disabilities. These best practices will help you create websites that are accessible and inclusive to everyone who may be using them.
WCAG 2.0 defines four conformance levels to web accessibility, which helps you focus on the areas that need the most work on your website. The four levels are:
- Level A compliance – the minimum level for accessibility which all websites should aim for. This level is usually too difficult for most small businesses to implement, so it’s unlikely that you would get a full A conformance score. Only 5% of the entire web complies with this level, making it a very ambitious goal. However, this level is the absolute minimum any website should achieve to ensure everyone who visits them has access to the information they need.
- Level AA compliance – this level ensures that users with any type of ability will access and use your website effectively. This includes people with low vision, blindness, color deficiencies (and other conditions), and people who have slow internet speeds, older technology, or mobile devices. According to the W3C, 14% of websites comply with this level.
- Level AAA compliance – a very high level of accessibility that is extremely rare for most websites to achieve. This level ensures that those using assistive technologies will have an overall positive experience and can access all of the content on your site. The truth is that this level may not be achievable for everybody at this time because it does involve complex coding, advanced web development skills, and lots of testing. Only 3% of websites meet with Level AAA compliance.
- Level AAA + compliance – this is an even higher level of accessibility than AAA, and it ensures that mobile devices will work properly on the website. The truth is that this level may not be achievable for most websites at this time because it involves complex coding, advanced web development skills, and lots of testing. Only 0.5% of all websites in the world currently meet with Level AAA + compliance, but it is a good goal for any website to strive towards if they can.
Now that you know these four levels and the percentage of websites that comply with each level, you should be able to pick one or two levels that will be your target for improving your site’s accessibility. This will help you determine which areas of your site need the most help and ensure that you don’t try to fix everything at once (which can be very difficult for many small businesses).
