If you’re a web developer who creates graphical user interfaces (GUI) for your applications, then you’re probably familiar with accessibility but possibly daunted by all it entails.
Are you afraid that implementing accessibility into your GUI will require you to read long guidelines, inflate your HTML code with countless additional attributes, make your GUI look ugly — and cost you too much time and money? Well, don’t worry. This article is for you.
In this article, I break down accessibility into a few easy-to-understand core principles and show you concrete guidance on how you can design your new GUI for accessibility from the beginning. While this article doesn’t offer comprehensive guidelines that solve all your accessibility problems, follow these simple principles to avoid the most common mistakes that make GUIs inaccessible.
Four core principles of accessibility
Accessible user interfaces follow these four basic principles:
Perceivable information and user interface: Users with disabilities can view and understand all the content on your site.
Operable user interface and navigation: Users with disabilities are able to navigate your GUI and use all the necessary functions.
Understandable information and user interface: All information is presented in a clearly structured and predictable way and provides clear guidance and help for correcting mistakes.
Robust content and reliable interpretation: Your GUI needs to be compatible with current and future tools (for example, different browsers, assistive technologies, and other user agents). Because this is a very technical requirement, we will not focus on this principle in this article.
