12 Web Accessibility Resources Every Developer Needs in 2024

Web accessibility is not an edge case or a nice-to-have. It‘s a fundamental human right and an essential aspect of inclusive, ethical web development.

Consider these statistics:

  • Over 1 billion people, or 15% of the world‘s population, live with some form of disability (Source: World Bank)
  • In the US, 26% of adults have some type of disability (Source: CDC)
  • The global market of people with disabilities is over 1 trillion dollars (Source: Return on Disability)
  • 71% of web users with disabilities will leave a website that is not accessible (Source: Click-Away Pound Survey)

What‘s more, web accessibility is a legal requirement under laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the European Accessibility Act (EAA), and the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA). In 2021 alone, there were 4,055 ADA lawsuits filed in federal court, many targeting inaccessible websites (Source: UsableNet).

But web accessibility is about more than avoiding lawsuits. When you make your website inclusive to people with disabilities, you also tend to improve usability for everyone. Accessible websites have better SEO, work across more devices, and reach a wider audience.

In fact, the total disposable income for US working-age persons with disabilities is about $490 billion (Source: American Institutes for Research). When your website excludes these users, you‘re leaving serious money on the table.

Implementing accessibility can seem daunting, but it doesn‘t have to be. By understanding the core principles, following best practices, and using the right tools and resources, you can efficiently integrate accessibility into your regular dev workflow.

To help you level up your accessibility game, we‘ve compiled the 12 most useful web accessibility resources every developer should know in 2024. Let‘s dive in!

Understanding Web Accessibility Standards

The foundation of web accessibility rests on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). WCAG is organized around four key principles, often abbreviated as POUR:

  1. Perceivable – Information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive.
  2. Operable – User interface components and navigation must be operable.
  3. Understandable – Information and the operation of the user interface must be understandable.
  4. Robust – Content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies.

The latest version, WCAG 2.1, provides specific success criteria at three conformance levels: A, AA, and AAA. Most accessibility laws and regulations reference WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the target to meet.

To learn more, check out these key resources:

Evaluating Your Site‘s Accessibility

"The accessibility problems of today are the mainstream breakthroughs of tomorrow."
– Steve Krug, usability expert and author of "Don‘t Make Me Think"

Before you can improve your website‘s accessibility, you first need to know where it stands. Automated testing tools are a great starting point to efficiently catch common barriers. However, they are not a complete solution, typically only identifying 20-50% of issues.

Some of the most popular and robust accessibility evaluation tools include:

Tool Description
WAVE Suite of evaluation tools that identifies WCAG errors and facilitates human evaluation. Browser extensions available.
Lighthouse Open-source automated tool for auditing accessibility, performance, SEO, and best practices. Built into Chrome DevTools.
axe Accessibility testing engine that integrates with browser dev tools, test frameworks, and CI/CD pipelines.
Accessibility Insights Comprehensive suite of tools from Microsoft, with features like FastPass and Assessment.

To get the full picture, combine automated scans with manual testing across a variety of devices, browsers, and assistive technologies. This includes navigating your site with a keyboard only, zooming to 200%, using a screen reader, and trying different color contrast and font size settings.

It‘s also critical to test with real users with disabilities whenever possible. Their direct experience and feedback can uncover issues and insights you wouldn‘t get from tools alone. Consider partnering with an accessibility consultancy or recruiting participants from local disability organizations.

Accessible Design and Development Techniques

Armed with your accessibility audit results, it‘s time to address the issues in your code and design. Let‘s walk through some of the most common accessibility barriers and how to solve them.

Providing Text Alternatives

"The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect."
– Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web

One of the core principles of web accessibility is providing text alternatives for any non-text content. This allows people using screen readers or Braille displays to perceive the information.

For images, that means using clear, concise alt text that conveys the purpose of the image:

<img src="team.jpg" alt="Our team at the 2023 company retreat">

For more complex images like charts or diagrams, you may need to provide a longer description, either directly in the text or via an aria-describedby attribute:

<img 
  src="market-share.png" 
  alt="Bar chart of market share by region"
  aria-describedby="market-share-desc"
>
<div id="market-share-desc">
  The chart shows our market share growing across all regions, with the 
  strongest growth of 10% in Europe and 8% in Asia. North America remains 
  our largest market at 62%.
</div>

For audio and video content, provide captions, transcripts, and audio description as needed. There are many tools and services that can help automate this process, such as:

  • Rev – Human-generated captions, transcripts, and subtitles with 99% accuracy
  • Descript Audiograms – Automatically transcribe videos and create shareable, accessible audiograms
  • AutoCap – Open-source automatic video captioning for YouTube and Facebook

Designing for Keyboard Use

Ensuring your site is fully keyboard accessible is essential for users who can‘t use a mouse, including those with motor disabilities, visual impairments, or limited dexterity.

All interactive elements like links, buttons, and form controls must be reachable and operable using the keyboard alone. The most common pattern is to use the Tab key to move focus forward and Shift+Tab to move backward.

To implement this:

  1. Ensure all interactive elements are focusable by using semantic HTML or adding a tabindex="0" attribute.
<a href="/about">About Us</a>
<button type="submit">Submit</button>  
<div tabindex="0" role="button">Custom Button</div>
  1. Provide a visible focus style so users can see where they are on the page. The default browser outline is a good start, but you can also customize it to fit your design:
:focus {
  outline: 2px solid #005fcc;
}

  1. Ensure the focus order follows a logical reading sequence, typically top-to-bottom and left-to-right. Avoid using tabindex values greater than 0, as that can disrupt the natural flow.

  2. For complex components like dropdown menus or modal dialogs, use ARIA roles and attributes to convey the correct semantics and keyboard behaviors. The WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices guide provides detailed patterns to follow.

Writing Semantic HTML

"The best accessibility comes from using the proper semantic elements for the content."
– Estelle Weyl, author and speaker

Writing clean, semantic HTML is the bedrock of an accessible website. By using the correct elements for the job, you convey the structure and meaning of your content in a machine-readable way.

Some key semantic elements include:

  • Headings (<h1> through <h6>) to define the structure of the page
  • Landmark elements like <main>, <nav>, <article>, <aside>, <footer> to define regions of the page
  • Lists (<ul>, <ol>) for related items
  • Buttons (<button>) for actions, links (<a>) for navigation

Conversely, avoid using generic elements like <div> and <span> for content that has a more appropriate semantic element.

For example, instead of:

<div>
  <div><img src="..." alt="Company XYZ"></div> 
  <div>
    <div>Home</div>
    <div>About</div>
    <div>Contact</div>  
  </div>
</div>

Use:

<header>
  <div class="logo"><img src="..." alt="Company XYZ"></div>
  <nav>
    <ul>
      <li><a href="/">Home</a></li>
      <li><a href="/about">About</a></li>  
      <li><a href="/contact">Contact</a></li>
    </ul>
  </nav>
</header>

The semantic version conveys the purpose of each element, making it easier for assistive technologies to navigate and understand your content.

Color and Contrast

Using color alone to convey information can make your content inaccessible to people with low vision or color blindness. Whenever color has a meaning, be sure to provide an additional visual cue like an icon, underline, or pattern.

For example, instead of just using red to indicate an error:

<span style="color: red;">Error: Invalid email address</span>

Add an icon as well:

<span style="color: red;">
  <img src="error.svg" alt="Error icon" style="width: 18px; height: 18px;"> 
  Error: Invalid email address
</span>

It‘s also important to ensure your text has sufficient color contrast against the background. The WCAG guidelines require a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text (18pt or 14pt bold).

You can check your color combos with tools like the WebAIM Contrast Checker or the Colorable app. There are also several plugins and browser extensions that can simulate different types of color vision deficiency:

The Future of Accessible Web Development

"As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others."
– Bill Gates

The field of web accessibility is constantly evolving, driven by advances in assistive technologies and updates to standards and regulations.

Some key developments on the horizon include:

  • WCAG 2.2 – The next minor release of WCAG, scheduled for June 2023, will add new success criteria related to focus appearance, accessible authentication, dragging movements, and more.
  • WCAG 3.0 – Formerly known as "Silver", WCAG 3.0 will be a major restructuring of the guidelines to better address the needs of different disability groups and emerging technologies. The first public working draft is expected in December 2023.
  • WAI-ARIA 1.3 – The Accessible Rich Internet Applications spec is also evolving, with version 1.3 adding new features for autocomplete, virtual lists, and extended descriptions, among others.
  • Personalization Standards – The W3C Personalization Semantics Content Module and the Personalization Tools Working Group are developing standards to allow users to customize their browsing experience according to their needs and preferences.
  • Emerging Assistive Tech – From computer vision and machine learning to augmented reality and brain-computer interfaces, the next generation of assistive technologies promises to radically transform how people with disabilities access the web.

To stay on top of these developments, be sure to follow industry blogs and newsletters like:

You can also get involved in online accessibility communities like:

Embrace Accessibility, Empower Everyone

As the web continues to become more central to every aspect of life, from education and employment to social connection and civic engagement, ensuring equitable access is more critical than ever.

By committing to learn and implement accessibility best practices, you‘re not just complying with standards, you‘re actively working to create a more inclusive digital world.

We hope these web accessibility resources empower you to weave accessibility into your everyday development workflow. The more developers like you who prioritize accessibility, the faster we can evolve the web to truly work for everyone.

Let‘s build a future where digital barriers become obsolete, and the power of the web is fully unlocked for people of all abilities. The path is clear – will you join us?

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