Step 1: Understand How People Living with Disabilities Use Your Website
Screen Readers
Screen readers are software programs that assist visually impaired users by reading aloud the text that is displayed on the computer screen and vital information in the code. In order for a screen reader to work properly with your website, the code must be set up in a specific way. WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) is an extensive set of "rules" for all that is needed to make a website accessible and compliant. The W3C is tasked with establishing and updating the WCAG standards, which consists of 1000's of pages of information.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Many users with disabilities are unable to use a mouse. As a result, every command that the average user utilizes a mouse for, must be able to be performed with buttons on a keyboard. For example, these users will browse the page with the “tab” key and hit the “enter” key to click.
Assistance Software
Additional to screen readers, there are various types of software designed to assist people with disabilities in using the internet. It is important that your website has the proper code requirements to interact with the software on which people with disabilities rely.