With the advancements in assistive technologies, there are millions of people worldwide accessing the world wide web in a variety of different ways. Some people with disabilities are using their heads to control their device via a camera, some are using their eyes via an eye tracker (like me), some are using their mouths via sip and puff devices, and the list goes on. With all these new methods comes certain challenges as well. The web wasn't necessarily designed with these methods of navigation in mind. I myself have had many frustrating experiences accessing certain websites. There's nothing worse than visiting your favorite clothing brand's website, only to find out their website wasn't designed with accessibility in mind.
In this post, I'll focus on my 3 main pet peeves when it comes to web accessibility.
Small navigation menus
Pop-ups!!!
Timed forms (or timed anything!)
Small Navigation menus
These can come in a variety of different ways. Sometimes it's the menu text or icons that are too small. Other times it's the "next page" icons that are too small. Whenever these navigation buttons are too small, it requires me to have pinpoint dexterity. For people controlling the mouse using their head, eyes, mouths, or other adaptations, this is sometimes very difficult and requires multiple attempts to click the desired button. This can become extremely frustrating and annoying causing me to close the website and look elsewhere.
Pop-ups!!!
Don’t even get me started!! Pop-ups really grind my gears and are hands down my biggest pet peeve for websites. The reason I dislike pop-ups so much is because I can’t get directly to what I’m looking for on the website. Pop-ups require me to do additional navigation. Sometimes to close the pop-up the "X" is extremely small and requires multiple attempts to close. The worst part is some websites have multiple pop-ups!!! Whenever I encounter a website with too many pop-ups I normally close the site immediately.
Timed forms (or timed anything!)
Any time I encounter something that has a countdown timer, my anxiety spikes! It takes me more time to fill out forms since I'm using my eyes to input the text. Having to rush to fill everything out in time is never a fun experience and I rarely end up finishing. Nowadays, whenever I see a website that has a countdown timer I normally close it immediately and avoid the stress.
We built this website (allaccesslife.org) using the Wix platform since we felt they offered a wide range of out-of-the-box built-in accessibility features. Websites should always take into consideration the different ways users are accessing their site and the importance of accessibility.
We also use the UserWay widget on our site. It's an intuitive widget that offers additional accessibility options on a website.
We highly recommend checking out this widget:
My hope is that this article will bring attention to the importance of accessibility on the web. Please share this blog post by selecting one of the social media icons below! Help me spread awareness of this important topic that I'm extremely passionate about!