Cognitive Load vs. Functionality Cognitive load is the amount of mental effort required to engage in a process. On a web page, clutter, animation, confusing content, background sounds, complex information, and other aspects of poor accessibility and usability increase cognitive load. Try to provide necessary functionality while minimizing cognitive load. This can be particularly difficult […]
Read Full Post »
Accessibility of User Flows When implementing accessibility, the issues on the most visited or high profile pages are often the first to be addressed. While this is effective, also consider user flows or processes. For example, on an online shopping site, focus on making the entire checkout process accessible. While the final purchasing page of […]
Read Full Post »
Separate Content/Functionality from Visual Design Accessibility of web page content and functionality occurs almost entirely in page markup (HTML). Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), on the other hand, should be used exclusively for defining page styling and visual design. While CSS can be used to improve visual design, accessibility, and usability, screen readers ignore nearly all […]
Read Full Post »
Consistent Navigation and Identification Consistency is important for web site accessibility and usability. WCAG 2.0 Success Criterion 3.2.3 (Level AA) requires that navigation elements that are repeated on web pages do not change order across pages. Success Criterion 3.2.4 (Level AA) requires that elements that have the same functionality across multiple web pages be consistently […]
Read Full Post »
Large Clickable Targets Some mouse users have may have difficulty with fine motor control, so it is important that clickable targets be sufficiently large. Radio buttons and checkboxes should include properly-associated labels (using the <label> element). Small icons or text, such as previous/next arrows or superscript links for footnotes, should be sufficiently large or combined […]
Read Full Post »
Do Not Require Unnecessary Form Data One of the keys to creating highly accessible forms is to avoid as many errors as possible before the form is submitted. Ensure that forms are as simple and intuitive as possible, and don’t require that a field be filled out if the content is not necessary (e.g., a […]
Read Full Post »
