How to Maximize the Accessibility of Your WordPress Website?

Is your WordPress website accessible? Well, there are many reasons to ensure that your site is accessible. An accessible website can be beneficial for Search Engine Optimization. In fact, creating these kinds of sites, engages more visitors to your great content that in turn increases your productivity. So, it will be better for you to maximize your WP site’s accessibility if you want to achieve targeted goals quickly and efficiently. Well as these 5 features that helps a website become great are important I think maximizing the accessibility of a website is also important. Undoubtedly, Content Management Systems are awesome, and WordPress is one of the most user friendly CMSs in the web world. And, it becomes imperative to make your site accessible for different groups of visitors, including users with disabilities, search engine robots and mobile users.
So, today we will learn the simple ways that can help you maximize the accessibility of your site:

1. Use of Headlines

Using headlines is one of the necessary aspects as it can give an exceptional semantic structure to your website. It basically helps your readers to explore your site easily and properly. Normally, webmasters use a <h1> tag for its main title. But, it will be better for you to use <h2>, <h3>, <h4>, etc. tags in your web page.

2. Include Accessible Plugins

The WordPress Accessibility plugin is the most important plugin that allows you to maximize your accessibility. The common accessibility features are added by this amazing plugin to most of the themes and also improve its issues at the same time.

For instance, it is also productive for posting titles to ‘more’ links with an objective to make them more accessible for people.

3. Link Awareness

It is appropriate to make your links understandable if it opens anything other than a web page on the same browser. It could add anything, whether it is an email icon for an email address or a PDF icon for a PDF. These icons should have images and the alt text. In fact, you also need to use the link’s title attribute for additional information.

4. Constant layout and structure

From the very first day of the launch of your site, the structure remains same. It means the header; navigation bar and side bar should be in the same location throughout your site. By doing so, you can boost the usability for every user along with its accessibility.

5. Underline your Text

If you are underlining your website’s text, then it helps links to look different from other text. Essentially, it helps those visitors, who are facing problems with color blind. In fact, with this, they can quickly and easily identify the underlined text.

6. Concentrate on link

If you want to attract more visitors to your site, then try to focus on the link. It confirms that your highlighted text has some sorts of focus. You can easily highlight text with different colors, underlines or different vibrant background color. It clarifies trouble of navigators, who are using your site. You can check a great example of concentration on link on my personal website.

7. Validate your Code

Validating your code is like comparing it to W3C standards. There is no difference than comparing a sentence you write to the rules of grammar for the language you wrote in it.

The code you use can also have different rules depending upon the doctype you us. Your doctype is setting the language that you are using and the code that is valid under one doctype may not be valid using another. You can use the W3C HTML Validator and CSS Validator for validating your code.

8. Subsidize with Transcriptions

If you want to intensify web accessibility, then you need to add transcriptions of audio and video in your site. In case, a screen reader unable to read audio and video file, alternatively, you can offer, then the Media Access Generator to transcript any video or audio.

9. Include Captions

You can also add the Media Access Generator along with providing transcriptions.

10. Utilize proper HTML for structuring posts and pages

A suitable use of header and paragraph components are depended over screen readers in order to deliver content in the readable and understandable way. If you misuse it, then your screen readers can get confused. In this situation, it is necessary to use HTML elements for decoration rather than avoiding structure.

To an addition, users should give attention to image metadata. If you are including relevant and descriptive ALT information within images, it will help your reader to get the content and context of images with ease.

Wrapping up:

Well, it completely depends on website owner to meet the standards of accessibility. However, if you want to maximize the accessibility of your site, then you have to consider the above points. You would also like to see some tools & tricks that makes your WordPress blog content Super-Accessible

Contributor Bio: Maggie Sawyer is a WordPress developer and she works for MarkupHQ Ltd., She has achieved great success in converting PSD to WordPress theme with 100% client satisfaction guaranteed. Blogging is her hobby and she loves to share innovative ideas regarding WordPress.

Comments

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Digital Pursuit says

September 18, 2015 at 1:14 pm

Very useful tips for optimize wordpress website. I am really follow your useful article. Thanks for sharing your valuable post

Akshay Joshi says

October 2, 2015 at 7:18 am

I'm glad you found this post helpful.