 Hey welcome to The Journey. Today we're talking about getting WordPress accessibility right every time. My name is Heather Luckin-Pribich. Never have to worry about needing to have a website be accessible while we browse. We just fire up our laptops, scroll on TikTok on our phones, just carry on without our day. But you'd be amazed at the vast array of hurdles that some users have to take to just browse an everyday website. And as a website designer or developer it's imperative that you create a website that's accessible to all. And when you consider WordPress websites make up 37% of the net it makes sense to be mindful of that build. So what is WordPress accessibility and why is it so important? And as we mentioned WordPress accessibility is really about creating a website and or just a platform that everyone can use. The more people that can use your website the more accessible it is. And again as a designer or developer if you're building these websites for clients this needs to be at the forefront of your design thinking and just the websites that you create. So by creating an accessible site you're gonna do a few things. You're going to make the site more user friendly so the user experience of building trust and loyalty you will also avoid some fines and lawsuits and in addition to that you're going to better optimize your site for Google listings. That being said there's a lot more that goes into creating a website than just being compliant. Before we dig into this any further it's worth noting that there's a couple different aspects when it comes to usability that play an equally important role to making a website accessible. So there's the accessibility of a website theme i.e. how it looks and then there's the plugins and custom coding or really what the site does. And to offer your visitors a truly accessible experience it's worth noting that you'll need to make sure both of these in the forefront when you're developing your website for usability and accessibility. So let's get into the types of accessibility. You got auditory, motor, cognitive and visual impairments. So it's predicted that about 15% of the world's population so that's like 1 billion people live with a disability. So by making websites more accessible you're able to reach a larger audience. Another type of accessibility is economic status. And many people around the world don't have the latest and greatest smartphone that can run 4G networks or the latest browser operating system. So you want to make sure that the websites that you create are backwards compatible with some of the older generations of phones, computers, laptops, all of the like and also the browsers themselves like internet explorer. Also when thinking about types of accessibility you'll want to make sure that it can operate on multiple devices. And these days WordPress themes are responsive from the get go so shouldn't be a problem but it's definitely worth an audit. And like we said website elements need to be accessible and if you've never considered WordPress accessibility before it might feel a little overwhelming but there's a core set of features that you want to really keep top of mind when you're developing these websites and let's really jump through each of these pieces and make it a little less overwhelming. The first one is just images and alt text. So the visually impaired can't necessarily see the images on your website so they rely on the alternative tags that really describe what that image is about. If you've been in WordPress and you've uploaded an image before you'll see that box the alt text and if you're leaving it blank you're not making your website accessible. And really you just want to describe what the image is about. Most the time the title will do a good enough job but if it's a picture of a man playing the saxophone say man playing saxophones they can really start to visualize what that image might look like. So let's talk about acronyms. I know screen readers can struggle with these so you'll want to use any subtext to avoid any incorrect interpretations. For example SEO search engine optimization might be interpreted as SEO. So again add any subtext to avoid that miscommunication. Yeah and continue the conversation with those screen readers. Contact forms are a big issue for those screen readers which is why I particularly recommend keeping the label so the text above the actual input field versus just inside as the placeholder text. It helps the person understand first name is why I have to put my first name last name last name and if that's not there some screen readers have difficulty understanding what those fields are which doesn't create an accessible experience for them. Also when thinking about accessibility think about your links. If the text of the hyperlink is click here where what's happening give me more description there. So for example if it said click here for your free ebook I know when I'm going to in fact click on that link I know what's gonna happen. There's no mystery there. The last part we want to talk about has to do with fonts. So unusual fonts might look good but those fancy fonts are really challenging for these visually impaired users or screen readers. So it's usually best to go with simple fonts such as OpenSan, Oswald or even Poppins my personal favorite and avoid those cursive wacky fonts and not necessarily with this category avoid comic sans but make sure your font is easy and clear to understand and read. So now the really fun part we're going to talk about legality in section 508 with regards to the accessibility guidelines and this is important to reflect on because we talked about breaking laws earlier not breaking laws and we're also talking about including all consumers in that user experience so it is important to get into the legality portion here and I have an example of this Beyonce's company specifically Beyonce.com became a defendant in a class action lawsuit because the site was not accommodating to the visually impaired that is leaving out two million people with vision impairments and so therefore they're unable to get the news or into the portal of news of all things yonsei and hey if you're unsure how accessible your website might be there's a free solution you can go to ace accessibility checker find out let's talk about the human and seo benefits for wordpress accessibility and now it's easy to become cynical when you think of web accessibility as just another hoop to kind of jump through to enhance your website's seo however at the the heart of website accessibility strategy in seo is all about providing your end users the best possible experience that they can have with your website catering to specialized needs is not just an act of generosity it's also good for your client's bottom line and by doing this you're really showing and leading the example that your web design their development or management company is all about impacting the world in a positive way accessible content is more than just seo it's about leveling the playing field for all users so for those living with disabilities internet shopping could be the easiest way for them to interact with your brand so as you go to make your site more accessible think about the general usability of the site and with that you know you're going to improve the overall customer experience a couple ways to do that simplifying overly complicated code also creating a clean and easy navigation tool and then don't forget to add the alt text to those images and hey while we're on the topic of seo not only are these adjustments really crucial for the overall accessibility of your WordPress site it's also a great opportunity to potentially boost higher in a search end your rankings by adding a couple extra keywords so are you ready to start getting your WordPress accessibility right for your clients and hey let's be honest it's not going to be a walk in the park especially when you consider the incredible freedom that WordPress gives you by allowing you to download whatever plugins and themes that you want to put on the website not to mention the sheer breadth of coding that you can write to make the site your own although a bit of effort is going to go into this to ensure that your site is in fact accessible to everyone regardless of their disability their device their economic status i can guarantee it'll be worth it now i hope this helps you make your clients WordPress sites that much more accessible because when it's accessible we all win if you've gotten any value out of this video make sure you give us a like and drop us a comment below also be sure to subscribe so you know what our next video is out this is a journey