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On accessibility

As it turns out, accessibility on the web means much more than simply adding alt text to things

April 25, 2020 (4 years ago)

As it turns out, accessibility on the web means much more than simply adding alt text to things.

Today I completed the "Applied Accessibility" section on FreeCodeCamp. I had very little prior understanding of accessibility despite having an entire section on this website dedicated to it. While I personally think it is fairly legible and easy to navigate, there are many aspects of this site that are too abstracted for users of screen readers.

I had no idea that semantic HTML was a thing! Now upon having studied this it makes complete sense - looking through the source code of a webpage and seeing div tags everywhere makes difficult to read even from a development standpoint. It is logical for accessibility to extend to things like labels for forms, buttons, and even using CSS to display graphical information to screen-readers as a table.

This course has now made me seriously reconsider how I approach web development. I don't want to exclude users from navigating and using my site, especially if it's because I've cut corners in how I am writing my HTML + CSS. The WCAG is very comprehensive in this regard, and I think it is best for me to make this approach of making with accessibility in mind as standard practice from now on.

T.