


How do I design and develop websites that are accessible to all users?
Jun 30, 2025 am 01:39 AMTo design and develop a website that is user-friendly, accessibility must be prioritized from the outset. 1. Clear structure: Use semantic HTML tags such as
The core of designing and developing a website that is user-friendly is to make “accessibility” a priority from the outset rather than remediation afterwards. This means that the use scenarios of users with different abilities must be taken into account in the design, coding and content organization stages.
1. Clear structure: laying the foundation for semantic HTML
HTML is the foundation of web pages. Using the right tags not only helps search engines understand content, but is also crucial to assistive technologies such as screen readers. for example:
- Use semantic tags such as
<header></header>
,<nav></nav>
,<main></main>
,<article></article>
to divide the page structure; - Title levels (h1~h6) should be nested reasonably to avoid skipping or abuse;
- The form element must have the corresponding
<label></label>
tag and be correctly bound; - Avoid simulating title or button effects by relying solely on styles, which will lose accessibility support.
Tips: You can use the browser's developer tools to see if the page structure is clear, or use the accessibility check plug-in to test.
2. Diversity should be considered in visual and interaction design
Visual design is not only good-looking, but also ensures that users with color blindness, low vision, or even without a mouse can operate smoothly:
- Color contrast : There must be at least 4.5:1 contrast between the text and the background (large fonts can be relaxed to 3:1), and can be detected using the Contrast Checker tool;
- Icons combined with text : using icons alone may be difficult to understand, and it is best to match them with text instructions;
- Keyboard navigation friendly : Ensure that all functions are accessible via the Tab key and that the focus status is clearly visible;
- Avoid automatically playing animations or sounds to avoid interfering with attention or causing sensory discomfort.
Some designers are used to only focusing on mouse interaction, but in reality, many users rely on keyboards, voice control or other input methods.
3. There should be alternatives to pictures, videos and form content
Multimedia content is an important carrier of information, but it is also easy to become an obstacle:
- All pictures should add an
alt
attribute to describe the image content (the decorative pictures can be empty alt); - The video should be provided with subtitles, preferably a sign language translation or text draft;
- Form error prompts, please clearly point out the problem, and do not just use red highlights;
- Give specific suggestions when submission fails, such as "Please enter a valid email address".
For example: If you upload a flowchart and images alone cannot be read by the screen reader, you must be accompanied by a concise text description to allow everyone to understand the content.
4. Testing and continuous optimization are the key
Even if you do it thoroughly in the early stage, you cannot confirm whether it is truly accessible without real testing:
- Use screen readers (such as NVDA, VoiceOver) to experience it yourself;
- Scan FAQs with automation tools (such as Axe, WAVE);
- Listen to real feedback from users with disabilities;
- Check accessibility synchronously when regularly updating website content.
Many teams will only think of doing accessibility tests later in the project, which is not only expensive, but also prone to missing details. It is best to do and test while forming work habits.
Basically that's it. It is not complicated to make the website accessible, but it does require conscious planning and execution from the beginning.
The above is the detailed content of How do I design and develop websites that are accessible to all users?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!

Hot AI Tools

Undress AI Tool
Undress images for free

Undresser.AI Undress
AI-powered app for creating realistic nude photos

AI Clothes Remover
Online AI tool for removing clothes from photos.

Clothoff.io
AI clothes remover

Video Face Swap
Swap faces in any video effortlessly with our completely free AI face swap tool!

Hot Article

Hot Tools

Notepad++7.3.1
Easy-to-use and free code editor

SublimeText3 Chinese version
Chinese version, very easy to use

Zend Studio 13.0.1
Powerful PHP integrated development environment

Dreamweaver CS6
Visual web development tools

SublimeText3 Mac version
God-level code editing software (SublimeText3)

Hot Topics

The key to keep up with HTML standards and best practices is to do it intentionally rather than follow it blindly. First, follow the summary or update logs of official sources such as WHATWG and W3C, understand new tags (such as) and attributes, and use them as references to solve difficult problems; second, subscribe to trusted web development newsletters and blogs, spend 10-15 minutes a week to browse updates, focus on actual use cases rather than just collecting articles; second, use developer tools and linters such as HTMLHint to optimize the code structure through instant feedback; finally, interact with the developer community, share experiences and learn other people's practical skills, so as to continuously improve HTML skills.

The reason for using tags is to improve the semantic structure and accessibility of web pages, make it easier for screen readers and search engines to understand page content, and allow users to quickly jump to core content. Here are the key points: 1. Each page should contain only one element; 2. It should not include content that is repeated across pages (such as sidebars or footers); 3. It can be used in conjunction with ARIA properties to enhance accessibility. Usually located after and before, it is used to wrap unique page content, such as articles, forms or product details, and should be avoided in, or in; to improve accessibility, aria-labeledby or aria-label can be used to clearly identify parts.

To create a basic HTML document, you first need to understand its basic structure and write code in a standard format. 1. Use the declaration document type at the beginning; 2. Use the tag to wrap the entire content; 3. Include and two main parts in it, which are used to store metadata such as titles, style sheet links, etc., and include user-visible content such as titles, paragraphs, pictures and links; 4. Save the file in .html format and open the viewing effect in the browser; 5. Then you can gradually add more elements to enrich the page content. Follow these steps to quickly build a basic web page.

To reduce the size of HTML files, you need to clean up redundant code, compress content, and optimize structure. 1. Delete unused tags, comments and extra blanks to reduce volume; 2. Move inline CSS and JavaScript to external files and merge multiple scripts or style blocks; 3. Simplify label syntax without affecting parsing, such as omitting optional closed tags or using short attributes; 4. After cleaning, enable server-side compression technologies such as Gzip or Brotli to further reduce the transmission volume. These steps can significantly improve page loading performance without sacrificing functionality.

To create an HTML checkbox, use the type attribute to set the element of the checkbox. 1. The basic structure includes id, name and label tags to ensure that clicking text can switch options; 2. Multiple related check boxes should use the same name but different values, and wrap them with fieldset to improve accessibility; 3. Hide native controls when customizing styles and use CSS to design alternative elements while maintaining the complete functions; 4. Ensure availability, pair labels, support keyboard navigation, and avoid relying on only visual prompts. The above steps can help developers correctly implement checkbox components that have both functional and aesthetics.

HTMLhasevolvedsignificantlysinceitscreationtomeetthegrowingdemandsofwebdevelopersandusers.Initiallyasimplemarkuplanguageforsharingdocuments,ithasundergonemajorupdates,includingHTML2.0,whichintroducedforms;HTML3.x,whichaddedvisualenhancementsandlayout

It is a semantic tag used in HTML5 to define the bottom of the page or content block, usually including copyright information, contact information or navigation links; it can be placed at the bottom of the page or nested in, etc. tags as the end of the block; when using it, you should pay attention to avoid repeated abuse and irrelevant content.

ThetabindexattributecontrolshowelementsreceivefocusviatheTabkey,withthreemainvalues:tabindex="0"addsanelementtothenaturaltaborder,tabindex="-1"allowsprogrammaticfocusonly,andtabindex="n"(positivenumber)setsacustomtabbing
