3 simple tips for making websites better for visually impaired users

The last 3 years have changed my entire perspective on web design.

Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash

I learned that I could make a difference for visually impaired users. Now, I want to share these lessons with you. Let’s make the internet a more inclusive place, shall we?

Here are three simple tips for making your website better for visually impaired users:

1. Use text descriptions for images

Some tips to make this actionable and easy:

• Relevance: Only describe the important parts of the picture — leave out the unimportant details
• Consistency: Keep the style and amount of detail in your descriptions the same across your whole website
• Emotional Content: Make sure the description tells the user about the feelings the picture wants to convey
• Alt Text: Use “alt” text to tell users what’s in a picture — like “a dog playing in the park,” not “image of a dog.”

2. Make sure users can use the website using only a keyboard

Some questions to ask yourself to test for keyboard accessibility:

• Form Accessibility: Can you fill out and submit forms on the website using only a keyboard?
• Tab Navigation: Can you navigate through all interactive elements of the website using only the Tab key?
• Skip Links: Does the website provide “skip to content” or “skip navigation” links to help keyboard-only users?
• Feedback: Does the website provide keyboard focus indicators (like a highlight or outline) to show which element you’re currently interacting with?

3. Use colors that are easy to see

Pay close attention when you use colors — and don’t make these common mistakes:

• Busy Backgrounds: Using complex or patterned backgrounds that make the text hard to see
• Color-Only Information: Using color as the only way to share important information or differences
• Low Contrast: Not providing enough contrast between text and background, making it hard to read the words
• Red-Green Color Blindness: Using red and green together in a way that’s hard to tell apart for people who are color blind

So there you have it! Three simple steps you can take to make your website more accessible for visually impaired users.

Make sure to give them a try on your own website!