How to Make A Charity Website Accessible

When developing charity websites at Studio Republic, accessibility is always one of our top priorities. Research from WHO shows that 15% of the world’s population has some sort of disability, so making sure the sites we create are accessible means we aren’t digitally excluding people or preventing them from accessing content.

If your charity’s website isn’t accessible, you risk losing potential supporters, donors, and volunteers who become frustrated with the online experience and instead turn to other organisations. A website that caters for a diverse demographic of users will support more meaningful engagement and create more opportunities for lasting support.

In this article, we’ll hear from our Developer and accessibility specialist Billy Salter on the key considerations for developing an effective and inclusive charity website, and what you need to make it happen.

Key considerations for website accessibility

Screen readers

Statistics show that at least 2.2 billion have a near or distance vision impairment. Impaired vision can have a profound impact on how someone interacts with a website. Screen readers provide an assistive solution by reading out the page content using a synthesiser, enabling readers who are visually impaired to navigate the internet and interpret webpages.

For a screen reader to work, it needs to be able to translate the content on the webpage and allow the user to navigate via the keyboard. This means that logical headers and sub-headers need to be implemented and all key elements should be clearly labelled and described, so the user journey is simple and easy to understand.

Colour contrast

Colour vision deficiency can impact the way people interpret and perceive information on websites. Poor colour contrasts or calls-to-action indicated by colour can make the online experience challenging and confusing for people who have a colour vision deficiency. With a significant number of people having some degree of colour vision deficiency, charity websites should prioritise colour choice. This not only supports strong branding, but it helps users distinguish between foreground and background elements and navigate a site with ease.

At Studio Republic, we have also developed our own handy tool to test the accessibility of your brand colour to streamline the process.

Properly testing your brand colours for accessibility will enable you to select a palette that looks great visually, while also ensuring your content is legible and clear.

Animations

Animations can be a great way to enhance user experience and engagement on your website. They can be used to illustrate calls-to-action, direct users to key elements on the page, and highlight important information. However, they can also affect users with disabilities including epilepsy, ADHD and autism. Understanding the impacts animation use can have on a variety of users will help to tailor effective solutions so they can be used strategically across your site. This will help to ensure they are properly developed in a way that reduces frustration, mental exertion and won’t be triggering for users.

A good place to start is utilising best practices and recommendations from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

Keyboard navigation

As previously mentioned, people with visual impairments using a screen reader will require the site to be navigated using a keyboard. But, there are other users who may also require this function, such as those with motor disabilities where movements can be limited or impaired. 

Developing a website that enables keyboard navigation as a key function will create a frictionless and more meaningful online experience for those who use assistive technologies.

Content

Lastly, content is key! Clear, concise language is paramount for not only supporting assistive software like screen readers, but ensuring your content is engaging and easy to understand for a variety of users.

WCAG also provides some really useful guidance on how to create quality content that promotes accessibility. This can include informative page titles and structures, meaningful text alternative for images, and accurate transcripts and captions for multimedia.

We’ve also created our own guide on the principles of inclusive digital design, to support charities on their journey to enhanced accessibility.

Who is responsible for these considerations?

So, now we know what the key considerations are for developing a charity website that is optimised for accessibility, but who is responsible for delivering on them?

When working with an agency like the team at Studio Republic, there are experts on hand to support you with your website build. An agency will run all the relevant accessibility tests throughout the development process and create effective solutions to ensure web accessibility standards are met.

This will include developers and designers working collaboratively so these solutions work well and have a stand-out visual identity that communicates seamlessly. Enhancing accessibility is a team effort and input from the client is also an invaluable part of the process to support quality content creation and providing meaningful feedback and insight.

How do you test website accessibility?

One of the most important ways to test your website’s accessibility is to undertake testing with users who have accessibility requirements. This type of testing is important because it can be difficult for someone without accessibility requirements to completely understand the needs of someone with them.

User testing is really important but I believe it is the third step in making your site accessible.  Firstly, I would recommend following the WCAG guidelines and testing using a screen reader as you go to make sure what you are doing is logical and easy to understand.

Secondly, use a tool to test the website. The best tool is Accessible web’s RAMP which provides recommended solutions and gives you clear guidelines for a manual audit.

As user needs continue to change and the capabilities of digital software grows, accessibility should remain an ongoing priority for charities. Having accessibility at the heart of your digital activities will support a more inclusive and user-friendly online experience.