Maximize Your Website’s Impact with Color Accessibility
#0. 7 Tactics to engage users and boost your website's performance
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About Seedli Collects
Seedli Collects is dedicated to helping marketers and communicators enhance their practices and strategies ethically and sustainably.
“The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.” – Tim Berners-Lee
👀 Challenge
The WebAIM 2024 report found that 95.9% of the analyzed one million home pages have at least one detected WCAG 2 accessibility failure.
Additionally, roughly 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women worldwide are colorblind. There are approximately 250 million people with color blindness in the world.
🫨 It's insane how many websites and homepages aren't accessible to everyone. But is it really that surprising? As marketers or comms professionals, we often have to whip up landing pages and websites without a designer's help.
Web accessibility is a topic we hear about often. I've had the privilege of working with incredible designers who champion accessibility. However, I've also faced challenges leading projects with designers who have limited knowledge in this area or even had to create things myself, realizing accessibility isn't always prioritized due to last-minute changes or lack of knowledge.
👉 In this newsletter, I aim to share a few insights I've gathered. These tips will help you lead design projects that reach a broader audience and create a lasting impact.
🎯 Objective
Ensure your website's colors are accessible to everyone, including those with visual impairments. As a marketer or communicator, you might not handle the technical details, but it’s crucial to understand these practices.
When leading digital projects, consider:
Guiding Your Team: Encouraging your designers and developers to prioritize accessibility.
Creating Inclusive Experiences: Striving to make your website user-friendly for all visitors.
Making Informed Decisions: Using your knowledge to advocate for best practices and oversee accessible projects.
By knowing about color accessibility, you can lead successful and inclusive digital projects.
👾 Why this should matter to you
Adopting color accessibility not only increase your reach but also enhances brand reputation, fosters customer trust, and ensures a seamless experience for all users, which can lead to higher engagement and retention rates (- among other things.
Enhancing Visibility and Engagement
Making your website accessible is not just about compliance; it significantly enhances your site’s visibility and engagement. Accessible websites are easier to navigate, making it more likely for visitors to stay longer and explore your content.
Increasing Revenue and Subscriptions
When your site is accessible, you reach a broader audience, including those with visual impairments. This inclusivity can lead to higher conversion rates, increased program subscriptions, and ultimately, more revenue. A site that is user-friendly and inclusive encourages trust and loyalty among all users.
Improving SEO and Search Rankings
Accessible websites often perform better in search engine rankings. Search engines favor websites that provide a good user experience, including those that are accessible to people with disabilities. By improving your site’s accessibility, you can boost your SEO efforts, driving more organic traffic to your site.
Demonstrating Corporate Responsibility
In today's socially conscious market, demonstrating a commitment to accessibility can enhance your brand’s reputation. It shows that you value all users, aligning with the principles of corporate social responsibility. This can differentiate your brand and attract customers who prioritize ethical practices.
🌱 Tactics
#1.Color Contrast
Make sure there’s enough contrast between your text and background colors. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) suggest a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for regular text and 3:1 for larger text. Tools like the WebAIM Color Contrast Checker can help you check these ratios.
#2. Avoid Using Color Alone
Don’t rely solely on color to convey information. Add text labels, icons, or patterns to ensure everyone can understand your content. For example, use symbols like exclamation marks or text descriptions along with color changes for error messages.
#3. Provide Textures and Patterns
Use textures and patterns in charts, graphs, and other visuals to differentiate between data points without relying only on color. This is especially helpful for users with color blindness.
#4. Label All Interactive Elements
Clearly label all interactive elements, such as buttons and form fields, with text. This provides context and instructions for users who rely on screen readers or have color vision deficiencies.
#5.Test with Color Blindness Simulators
Check how your website looks to users with different types of color blindness. Adjust your design based on these simulations to make it more accessible.
#6. Avoid Problematic Color Combinations
Steer clear of color combinations that are hard for color-blind users to distinguish, like green and red, blue and purple, or green and brown. Opt for combinations that offer better contrast and clarity, such as black and white, yellow and blue, or green and white.
#7. Provide Customizable Themes and Modes
Offer options for users to switch to high contrast, dark mode, or other themes. These settings can enhance readability and reduce eye strain, allowing users to choose the display that works best for them.
🛠️ Your toolbox
Test your web page
Test your visual assets:
Test Your Design with Plugins:
Stark for Sketch, Figma, Adobe XD
Color Blindness Simulator & Contrast Checker Apps:
Test Your Color Palette:
That's all for today's post! It was fun writing about this.
In the upcoming posts, I’ll be discussing how to incorporate inclusion, diversity, transparency, honesty, responsibility, and more—all with one goal in mind: serving concrete marketing, communications, and advocacy goals.Who says you have to be ruthless to succeed in marketing? I hope you enjoyed this first pilot edition and found it helpful. See you in the next post! 😉
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