The odds are that you’ve heard about using an accessibility overlay to make your website more accessible to people with various disabilities. You may have even heard of the importance of using accessibility overlays to comply with requirements like the Americans With Disabilities Act.
This article will give tips on using an accessibility overlay on your website, some of the pitfalls of using an accessibility overlay, and some tools for creating one.
What Are Accessibility Overlays?
To begin with, an accessibility overlay is a semi-transparent image placed over a website. The purpose of an overlay is to provide crucial parts of a webpage with higher contrast than the rest of the page, making it easier for people with visual disabilities to use.
Typically, accessibility overlays are placed on top of the web content because they have the most effect. However, they can be placed over the header of a website to make navigation buttons or other parts of a website’s design easier to distinguish.
What Are The Benefits Of Using An Accessibility Overlay?
Using an accessibility overlay has several benefits, such as:
- Making it easier for people with visual disabilities to use your site
- Complying with the Americans With Disabilities Act
- Using less bandwidth than other types of high-contrast text (such as icon fonts)
What Are Some Common Pitfalls Of Using An Accessibility Overlay?
Some common pitfalls of using an accessibility overlay include:
- Making an overlay that isn’t high enough contrast
- Making an overlay that obscures too much of the website’s content
- Designing an overlay without considering colorblindness
- Making an inaccessible overlay
How Can I Make My Own Accessibility Overlay?
There are numerous tools you can use to make an overlay. Some of these tools are mobile-friendly, some offer high contrast text instead of icons, and some are even compatible with assistive technology like screen readers.
Two of the most popular accessibility overlays are WAVE and Contrast.
WAVE stands for Website Accessibility Evaluation Tool, but it offers more than a simple overlay. WAVE also offers suggestions on improving your accessibility and gives you information about common web accessibility mistakes.
Contrast is a low-cost service that allows you to create an overlay for your desktop and mobile website. It also provides many contrast options so you can customize the overlay’s text and background colors to suit your needs.
Both WAVE and Contrast have extensive documentation on using their services, including screenshots of what your overlays will look like before you create them.
Contrast is more cost-effective than its competitor WAVE, which requires a paid subscription to access the tools needed to create an overlay. However, your business or organization may benefit from having your private account on WAVE if you find that you use their service frequently.
Conclusion
Using an accessibility overlay on your website has several benefits, including making it easier for people with visual disabilities to use your site and complying with the Americans With Disabilities Act. There are numerous tools you can use to make your overlay, but be sure to choose one that allows you to customize the text color and background color and includes a set of guidelines for using the service.