Can we create a virtual world more accessible for everyone?

2020 saw the world of art become a more virtual one. Whilst this opened up many opportunities, it reenforced the many barriers which exist for disabled audiences. With over 14 million people in the UK with a disability, every organisation has a responsibility to work towards making the arts more accessible.

Under the Equality Act 2010 a disability is defined as having a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ negative effect on your ability to do normal daily activities.

As we deepen our understanding & undergo our own improvements as an organisation, below we share some initial learnings to support other artists and practitioners to create a fairer landscape for everyone to enjoy the arts.

1. Speak to the communities you are trying to serve.

For work to to be truly accessible. It’s important to have an ongoing dialogue with the people and communities with the lived experience. Disabilities exist in many different ways. Some visible, some not. Opening up direct conversation will give you the opportunity to understand of the barriers that exist.

1. Alt tags.

Adding alternative text will improve the accessibility of your content. This will enable communities with a visual impairment to use a screen reader to better understand images on your page.

As the text will be read out aloud it’s important to describe the images as accurately and succinctly as possible.

2. Create subtitles and transcripts.

Making the effort to provide subtitles and transcripts for your web content If your web content regularly includes videos, try to provide subtitles — especially if you’re producing the bulk of your own video content. Popular video hosting sites such as YouTube have tools that allow users to add subtitles to their clips.

Making a transcription of the video available online is also an incredibly helpful resource for users.

3. Put periods in abbreviations.

If you're abbreviating something in HTML, put periods in between each letter. For example, if you're referencing the Central Intelligence Agency, write it out as C.I.A., rather than CIA. A screen reader won't recognize the abbreviation without periods, and will instead read it out phonetically as a word (C-I-A will be read as "cia").

4. Describe your links.

When embedding a link in a post, it's more useful to describe the link, rather than just telling the reader to "click here." For example, it's better to write out, "To learn more about technology, check out Mashable's tech channel" instead of "To learn more about technology, click here."

Whenever possible, underline your links or make sure that there is a color contrast between hyperlinked text and regular text. That way, colorblind users will able to find a link immediately without having to hover over it with their cursors.

5. Using accessible colour schemes for your website.

Have you ever been on a website and tried to read an article with a pink background and white text. Challenging we know!

Making mindful colour palette choices for your website will overall provide a much more positive experience for any kind of audience. If in doubt a white background with black text is considered best practice as it is high contrast and readable for the majority of people.

6. Get clickable.

For users with mobility problems, it can be difficult to click on small items within a tiny clickable range. It’s like trying to nail a bullseye every single time you play a game of darts. Give the clickable item a wider range so the user can click on it within the item's general area.

There are plenty of available guides for how to create this in code, like this how-to from Webcredible.

7. Avoid the fancy words and keep your copy simple.

This tip is helpful for any audience, but is imperative for elderly audiences or those with learning disabilities. If you're putting a lot of text onto your website, break it into smaller paragraphs. Use simple, straightforward language in the active voice.

Naturally, this might not work for all sites, depending on the content, but you can apply it to various pages (such as an "About" or "History" section).

8. Include an accessibility guide.

If you've done your best to make your site disability-friendly, include a section that lays out all of the ways your site is accessible. Alternatively, you can post a guide on tips and tricks users can implement on their own computers. A great example of this comes from the BBC, which has an entire section devoted to accessibility.

"Rather than providing various tools for accessibility, they provide information on how to make the most of the settings and features on their computer or in their browser," Berry says. As far as accessible mainstream sites go, Berry says he’s “impressed” by how user-friendly the BBC is.

Broken down into multiple sections, the BBC offers support based on the user's disability, with selections such as "I can't see very well," "I am blind" and "I find words difficult." Wassmer also cited the BBC as an exemplary site of disability friendliness.

Even if you don’t have the same resource level as the BBC to create such an exhaustive guide, you should still round up your accessibility selling points. It can be of powerful use for your site's visitors.

9. Know your audience.

"It's difficult, if not impossible, to design generically for all disabilities," Wasserman says. "Within the main categories of disability — sensory, physical and cognitive — there is such wide variation, so it's important to understand your users first."

If you're passionate about making the most accessible site possible, try to get a physical read on how someone with disabilities actually goes online.

"Watch how people interact with the web, through assistive technologies like screen readers, or how they customize their browser," Berry says.

You can also use yourself as an example. Download a screen reader, like Google's free ChromeVox, and learn firsthand how assistive technology works. The experience will inform you on your journey to designing a more disability-friendly website.