Is Your Website Accessible? 9 Tips From Gehirngerecht Digital

By Florentina Czerny

Photo: Gehirngerecht Digital

With the introduction of the Barrier-Free Strengthening Act, many company websites will have to be barrier-free from June. But what does that actually mean? The company “Gehirngerecht Digital” from Augsburg specializes in designing inclusive websites – and provides tips on how to make your website accessible.

Do you know whether your company's website can be easily used by people with visual impairments? Can hearing-impaired people find their way around it, or people who cannot use their arms or hands? The issue of accessibility does not play a major role online - but this will soon have to change for many providers: From June, many companies will be obliged to offer accessible websites. These include, for example, online stores in the B2C sector and service providers who use websites to arrange appointments with their customers. Computer scientist Nina Jameson founded “Gehirngerecht” together with her co-founder Tobias Roppelt. In their online blog and seminars, the two young entrepreneurs from Augsburg provide information about inclusion and accessibility on the internet and help their clients to make their websites accessible to everyone. But how do you approach this topic? Nina Jameson gives tips that can help you get started:

1. Create Awareness: The “Why” Must Be Clear

“Of course, the legal situation plays an important role in this question: the Barrier-Free Strengthening Act (BFSG) obliges many companies to implement accessible content. Apart from that, the moral perspective is also very important. Everyone should be able to participate in digital life without outside help. The current WebAIM study on accessibility shows that we are still a long way from reaching this point in society: 95% of all websites are not accessible. And around 16 percent of people do not have the same opportunities to participate in online life.”

Digital accessibility

Digital accessibility is helpful for everyone because it makes the internet accessible and creates inclusion. / Graphic: Gehirngerecht Digital

2. Inclusion as a Standard: Adopting and Living Values

“Anyone who takes a closer look at the topic of online accessibility quickly realizes that it is comprehensive and complex. For many of us, this means learning a lot of new things and implementing this knowledge in our day-to-day work. Change processes are necessary, especially in companies that have had little to do with inclusion in the past. It can happen that not all employees are immediately enthusiastic – and this often makes implementation more difficult and does not always lead to the best results. It is therefore important to raise awareness of the issue at an early stage. The right motivation comes much more easily when you really understand the necessity.”

3. Don't Worry: A Good Error Culture Makes Implementation Easier

“Perhaps the most important tip: don't let it stop you from tackling the issue! Many people are afraid of it because they think it's such a huge amount of work – and it is a lot. But it's not rocket science. It's also important to have a good error culture and not to get too angry if something doesn't go as planned. There will always be people you don't reach with your offer. The important thing is to approach accessibility anyway, to have fun with the topic and not lose the joy of implementation.”

"Implementing digital accessibility starts with small steps": It can seem intimidating at the beginning. Fot this it is important to see it as a process and start with small tasks. / Graphic: Gehirngerecht Digital

4. Start Planning: Setting the Right Framework

“First of all, you should think about what it means to be barrier-free. Accessibility is something different for everyone, because each person has their own specific needs. At European level, the 'EN 301 549' standard has been defined as the standard – many digital products must comply with it. In many places, the EN refers to the established international standard of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). However, in addition to the criteria specified in the standard, the WCAG also contains a whole series of requirements that do not have to be met according to the legislator. These are the so-called AAA criteria, which significantly increase the accessibility of an application.”

5. Adapt the Working Methods: Everyone Plays Their Part

“Digital accessibility really affects every piece of content we create. Whether it's websites, newsletters, products for an online store, live chats, blog articles, emails to colleagues, PDFs, social media and so on – accessibility starts where I make digital content available to others. Everyone has to adapt their way of working in the long term. Thinking about how to change familiar workflows is a big part of the job. The goal should be to keep accessibility in mind every step of the way.”

 

»A classic mistake, for example, is to convey information using only color. If I express right and wrong using only red and green, ten percent of all men are unable to perceive this due to a red-green deficiency.«

Nina Jameson

6. Understanding Comes First: Using the Right Language

“The choice of language depends first and foremost on the target group. Most of the relevant texts (such as online applications and related information material) are written by academics. The written language level is therefore very high. However, academics only make up a third of the population. Therefore, it cannot be assumed that long nested sentences and technical terms will be understood correctly by all readers. A good compromise here is the use of plain language. Public bodies are even obliged to provide certain information in plain language. Easy language is a special variation of German that aims to be particularly easy to understand. The target group includes people with learning disabilities or dementia, for example.”

7. Inclusive Design: Visuals and Navigation That Appeal to All People

“The design lays the foundation for programming and content creation. If errors regarding accessibility occur here, they can no longer be easily corrected during implementation. A classic mistake, for example, is to convey information using only color. If I express right and wrong using only red and green, ten percent of all men are unable to perceive this due to a red-green deficiency. Low color contrasts are problematic for everyone, especially as eyesight deteriorates with age. However, digital accessibility affects far more than the visual spectrum. To create an accessible application, you should never assume a special way of using it. In an accessible application, I can access everything with a single click. Swipe gestures such as on the dating app Tinder can already be problematic for some people who cannot use their hands if no alternative is provided.”

"Correct" or "incorrect"? In addition to color, errors can be marked with icons such as a cross for incorrect and a tick for correct. This allows people with color vision deficiencies to recognize the error. / Graphic: Gehirngerecht Digital

8. The Technical Basis: Accessibility Starts With Programming

“The preparation is complete, now it's time for implementation - but what's the best way to go about it? First of all, you should check whether the tools used can create accessible content at all. Unfortunately, even in the year 2024, manufacturers are still thwarting us in many cases. Content management systems (CMS) in web development are a good example. A CMS can be used to create and manage websites. However, if the CMS itself does not provide accessible output, regardless of the input, the result can never be an accessible website. Every tool we use should ideally meet the requirements of EN 301 549. If this is not the case, changing the tool used may be the quicker and less complicated solution, depending on the application.”

9. Check Your Website: Tools and Contacts That Can Help

“You can test whether you have done a good job with accessibility using various tools, for example 'Wave'. Wave is an automated test tool that checks websites for various accessibility criteria, such as color contrast. However, you should bear in mind that such tools only detect around 30 percent of all possible accessibility errors. So if they do not show any errors, this does not necessarily mean that there are none. There are various approaches to manually checking digital content. You can have your website tested according to a technical standard or work together with people with disabilities. In Munich, for example, the Pfennigparade Foundation can serve as a point of contact.”

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