Making the website easy to use for folks with disabilities is not only the right thing to do, it’s the law. When a website is accessible, it’s actually easier to use for everyone, and makes content easier to find via web searches. Here’s a presentation about website accessibility.
Text
The text of links needs to be descriptive: instead of “Click here” or “Read more” use something like “More information on the Infinite Circle”. When people scan pages, they see the headings and links; other text tends to get ignored unless the person has decided they are interested.
Use headings to organize the page, not for decoration. Headings provide structure to the content – don’t use them for decoration. Don’t skip heading levels — use them as though you were writing an essay for your 6th grade teacher, who required you to write an outline. The title of the page is the H1 heading — no other H1 headings should appear on the page. Main sections are H2s, subsections are H3s etc.
Images
Do not include text in images, or if you, include the text in the alt text for the image and right on the page. Otherwise, vision-impaired people can’t read the text.
Include alt text for all images except those with no meaning (e.g., decorative flourishes). It should describe the image the way you’d describe it to someone over the phone.
Video and Audio
Provide a transcript and captions for all video and audio files. Post the text on the page: this make it easy for a person to scan the text to decide whether to watch the video or listen to the audio. Also, this enables Google and other search engines to index the page by its content.
