How to Design an Accessibility Friendly Website

Creating an accessible website benefits everyone that visits your site, including people with disabilities. An accessible site follows best practices and standards that make content easy to perceive, understand, navigate and interact with for the widest range of users. This includes creating banner ad designs that are readable, non-intrusive and easy to dismiss.

With a few considerations during the design process, you can make your website welcoming to all. Follow these tips to help create an accessibility friendly website:

Ensure Text is Readable

Text readability goes beyond just font size. To make text accessible:

• Use sufficient font size (at least 16px)
• Maximise contrast between text and background colours
• Use simple, easy to read fonts
• Allow text to be resized without breaking site layout
• Avoid italicised or all-caps text which is harder to read
• Provide ample line spacing (at least 1.5x font size)
• Keep paragraphs and blocks of text short
• Left align text for better readability
• Use text formatting like bold and italics sparingly

Pay extra attention to font choices. Sans serif fonts like Arial or Helvetica tend to be most readable for those with visual impairments. Avoid fancy script and display fonts.

Advertisements and Banner Ads

Banner ads should also follow accessibility best practices. Ads with flashing content, confusing navigation or poor colour contrast frustrate users.

Instead, create text-based ads with:

• High colour contrast
• Brief, readable text
• Non-intrusive placement
• Easy to dismiss

Avoid ads with:

• Flashing/blinking elements
• Popups or confusing navigation
• Poor colour contrast
• Overly prominent images lacking text

Ads should catch attention without being disruptive or inaccessible. Provide options for users to stop distracting motion and adjust ad layout/colour.

Write Clear, Concise Content

Well-written content benefits all users. To improve readability:

• Use simple, straightforward language
• Avoid unnecessary jargon and abbreviations
• Write short sentences and paragraphs
• Structure content with subheadings and lists
• Include alt text for all images
• Provide text transcripts for audio and video
• Present information in a logical order
• Break complex info into digestible chunks
• Use active voice and avoid passive voice when possible

Clean, concise writing allows all visitors to efficiently scan and understand your content.

Design an Intuitive Navigation Menu

Good navigation is essential for an accessible site. Your menu should:

• Be consistent across all pages
• Clearly indicate what page the user is on
• Allow keyboard access and screen reader use
• Avoid nested submenus if possible
• Have descriptive menu labels
• Place navigation in a predictable area on each page
• Use text formatting to distinguish current page
• Provide search function for site content

Navigation should be simple and predictable. Users should not need to guess where to find pages or tools.

Ensure Sufficient Colour Contrast

Low colour contrast makes text difficult to read, especially for those with visual impairments. Aim for:

• At least 4.5:1 contrast ratio for normal text
• At least 3:1 for large text (over 24px)
• Avoid conveying info by colour alone
• Sufficient contrast between background and foreground colours
• Use dark text on light background for optimal readability

Check contrast ratios using online colour contrast checker tools for compliance.

Optimise Interactive Elements

Buttons, forms, and other interactive elements should be optimised for usability:

• Make buttons/links identifiable
• Allow keyboard control of all functions
• Provide text labels for non-text elements
• Give form fields descriptive labels
• Provide helpful error messages if needed
• Use consistent styling across interactive elements
• Space links/buttons so they are easy to tap
• Allow users to review info before submitting forms

Interactions should be predictable and give clear feedback.

Accommodate Screen Readers

Blind users rely on screen readers to interpret page content. To accommodate them:

• Provide descriptive alt text for images
• Use semantic HTML tags like main, header, nav
• Avoid repetitive links like “click here”
• Allow row/column headers in data tables
• Provide skip navigation links
• Ensure logical reading order
• Label interactive elements clearly
• Give users control over animations/carousels

Screen reader users should be able to navigate and use your site efficiently.

Allow Users to Adjust Page Display

Give users options to view content in a way that works for them:

• Allow text to be resized without hurting layout
• Make site navigable and readable when zoomed in
• Do not rely on hover effects alone
• Avoid carousels, blinking/flashing content
• Give user control over time limits
• Provide controls to stop autoplaying media
• Allow focus to be visible when tabbing through page

Customisation allows each user to tailor the experience to their needs.

Conduct Accessibility Testing

No matter how carefully you design your website, always test for accessibility issues before launch.

• Use online accessibility checkers to test for errors.
• Disable CSS and images to test content without styling.
• Navigate site using only keyboard.
• Try out the site with a screen reader.
• Ask users with disabilities to evaluate site.

Fix any issues uncovered in testing for optimal access. Perform regular re-testing to catch new problems.

Make Accessibility a Priority from the Start

By keeping accessibility in mind from the initial planning stages, you can design an inclusive website for all users. Follow best practices for content, navigation, interactive tools, images, colour, layout, and advertisements.

Conduct ongoing testing to catch any areas that need improvement. Customer experience is enhanced when you create an accessible, user-friendly website for everyone.

Prioritising accessibility demonstrates corporate social responsibility and expands your audience reach. With forethought and testing, you can create a website that works for all.