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Series: Designing accessible resources for people with disabilities and Deaf people

Creating Accessible Websites

Tip Sheet No. 4

July 2017

Organizations use their websites to 
communicate vital information to 
their constituencies, from news about 
upcoming trainings to newly released 
publications and resources to frequently 
asked questions about the organization. 
Ensuring that your website is accessible 
to people with disabilities can greatly 
increase your reach and provide access 
to your resources to a population that 
needs them. Moreover, federal laws such 
as Section 508 of the Rehabilitation 
Act of 1973 and the Americans with 
Disabilities Act (ADA) legally obligate 
you to ensure that your websites are 
accessible. Regardless of what motivates 
you to create an accessible website, the 
result will be the same: More people with 
disabilities will be able to engage with 
your organization.

Planning an 
accessible website

It is easy to implement many accessibility 
features if you build them into your 
website development or redesign. 
Fixing an inaccessible website can be 
significantly more complex, requiring 
more time and resources. As such, the 
most important decision you can make to 
ensure that you will have an accessible 
website is to select a developer who 
understands how to build in accessibility 
from the very beginning. Key areas to 
explore when choosing a developer 
include:

› Is the developer familiar with web 
content accessibility guidelines 
(WCAG)? 

› Do the websites the developer has 
created conform to WCAG?

› What measures does the developer take 
to ensure websites are accessible?

› Do these measures include usability 
testing by real people? 

› Based on your community and website 
goals, are there any additional 
accessibility or usability features the 
developer would recommend?



Creating Accessible Websites

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Features of an 
accessible website

While it is essential to select a developer 
who knows how to build accessibility 
features into your website, it is also 
important for you to know what those 
features should be. Accessibility 
features allow all users, with and without 
disabilities, to experience the website 
fully. To make this possible, the site should 
provide a variety of ways for users to 
interact with the content—including 
visuals and audible/video files. The site 
should also provide ways for users to 
move through the pages, and understand 
the information, including:

Interaction

› Add alternative text (Alt text) to all 
images on your website. Alt text is a 
description of the image or object that 
allows people using screen readers to 
understand the content of the graphic.

› Ensure that you caption videos on your 
website. Captioning is the process of 
converting the audio content of a 
video into text and displaying the text 
on a screen. 

› Any audible and video files on your 
site should have transcripts available 
(printed version of the audio content).

› Avoid using CAPTCHAs to block spam. 
CAPTCHA stands for Completely 
Automated Public Turing Test to Tell 
Computers and Humans Apart. These 
are often used to weed out spambot 
comments from human comments. 
CAPTCHAs are typically images of 
distorted characters that are not 
accessible to screen readers; even if 
there is an audio option, the distorted 
audio prevents people with some types 
of disabilities from posting comments.

Operation

› Define the purpose behind each link 
on your website to help visitors decide 
whether they want to follow the link. 
Hyperlink text should provide a clear 
description of the link destination, 
rather than only providing the URL or 
“click here.”

› Use headings correctly to provide 
content and structure to your website 
and to communicate the content’s 
organization on the page. Assistive 
technologies use them to provide in-
page navigation. The most important 
heading has the rank 1 (<h1>), the 
least important heading rank 6 (<h6>). 
Headings with an equal or higher rank 
start a new section; headings with a 
lower rank start new subsections that 
are part of the higher ranked section.



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› Include a mechanism for those 
using your website to pause, stop, 
or hide moving, blinking or scrolling 
information. 

› Avoid time limits for completing tasks 
so that keyboard-only users are not 
timed out. 

› Include a system for bypassing a long 
list of links, such as a “skip navigation” 
feature, reducing clutter that is difficult 
for screen readers or people with motor 
disabilities to navigate. 

Understanding

› Use the most readable font such as a 
sans serif (i.e., Arial or Verdana) and 
avoid using cursive or fantasy fonts.

› Ensure that the foreground text 
sufficiently contrasts with the 
background colors. This includes text 
on images, background gradients, 
buttons, and other elements.

› Summarize long articles.

› Identify your site’s language 
preferences in code to help with 
screen readers.

Maintaining the accessibility 
of your website

While building accessibility into your 
website is an important first step, ongoing 
maintenance of the site’s accessibility 
features is also critical. If you have the 
staff capacity, you can handle this task 
internally. If not, you can often contract 
with the web developer to update and 
support the site. Whichever direction 
you take, make sure that the support 
personnel have training and resource 
guides outlining the key access features. 
There are also online tools for monitoring 
the site’s accessibility, such as:

› WAVE (https://perma.cc/MZ8T-Q7XL)—
a suite of tools for facilitating web 
accessibility evaluation, providing a 
visual representation of accessibility 
issues within the page; 
› Cynthia Says

 (https://perma.cc/5Y9E-
PGSN)—which helps users identify 
errors in site content related to Section 
508 standards and/or the WCAG 
guidelines for web accessibility;

› SortSite (https://perma.cc/YY6D-
77MN)—a one-click website testing tool 
used by federal agencies; it checks 
websites against WCAG and Section 
508 guidelines. 



Creating Accessible Websites

› Accessibility Color Wheel 
(https://perma.cc/59WQ-VPY6)—which 
helps to improve site accessibility by 
analyzing the contrast of a color pair 
and showing how color-blind people 
will see it. It simulates three kinds of 
vision deficiencies: deuteranopia, 
protanopia, and tritanopia. If the 
contrast between the colors is good, 
a checkmark will appear.

Some of the tools can be used online; 
other tools require a download or plug-
in. For a list of all available tools, see the 
Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools List 
(https://perma.cc/MZ8T-Q7XL) from the 
Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

Involving users in 
evaluating website 
accessibility

Users with disabilities and older users can 
provide valuable feedback as you create 
your website. Not only can they help to 
identify accessibility problems, they can 
spot usability problems that could affect 
all site visitors. When choosing people 
to assess the website as you build it, it 
would be helpful to hear from: 

› people who use screen readers; 

› people with cognitive disabilities;

› people who use different means 
of interacting with the computer 
(keyboards, voice controls, mouth 
sticks, etc.) 

› older adults

› Deaf people

Give your reviewers an accessibility 
check list. Some examples of tasks you 
may have them do include but are not 
limited to: 

› looking for a specific page or topic on 
the website; 

› moving from page to page; 

› filling in online forms; 

› using built-in accessibility features 
such as a skip content button; 

› opening and reading files on your 
website; and

› viewing or listening to online audio and 
video files.

If your evaluators seem confused or are 
having difficulty with the tasks you’ve 
assigned them, offer assistance. Get 
individual or group feedback about their 
experiences interacting with your website.



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Conclusion

Removing barriers that prevent interaction 
with or access to your website by people 
with disabilities is essential for reaching 
all audiences. Correctly designed, 
developed, and edited sites allow every 
user to have equal access to information 
and functionality.



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Additional resources

For additional information on creating 
accessible websites:

Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)

https://perma.cc/4PFG-2ANB

Web Accessibility Basics for 
Nonprofit Leaders 

https://perma.cc/WFH7-NMBF

Improving Website Accessibility

https://perma.cc/NT9G-B9XN

Accessibility Basics

https://perma.cc/3BWM-ZYN2

Website Accessibility for Persons with 
Disabilities: The Why & How

https://perma.cc/QTQ2-UKQ6

Involving Users in Web Projects for 
Better, Easier Accessibility 

https://perma.cc/4MZN-JRVZ

For more information

The Center on Victimization and Safety 
(CVS) at the Vera Institute of Justice works 
with communities around the country 
to fashion services that reach, appeal 
to, and benefit all victims. CVS’s work 
focuses on communities of people who 
are at elevated risk of harm but often 
marginalized from victim services and 
the criminal justice system. We combine 
research, technical assistance, and 
the training to equip policymakers and 
practitioners with the information, skills, 
and resources needed to effectively serve 
all victims. To learn more about CVS, 
contact cvs@vera.org. 

This project was supported by Grant 
No. 2014-TA-AX-K002 awarded by the U.S. 
Department of Justice (DOJ), Office 
on Violence Against Women (OVW). 
The opinions, findings, conclusions, 
and recommendations expressed in this 
publication are those of the authors(s) 
and do not necessarily reflect the views 
of DOJ, OVW.