Designing for assistive technologies

When you make web content accessible, it can be interpreted by assistive technologies and presented to users.

Assistive technology (AT) cannot make content accessible to users if the content has not been designed and developed to support and work with AT.

To help ensure that AT users can reliably read and interact with your web content:

• become familiar with how web browsers, markup and AT work together — see the following Knowledge Areas:
  • Browsers, code and assistive technologies
  • Semantics and markup
• make sure that your content meets the requirements in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
• apply the accessibility best practices described in the associated guidance for different Web Content Types
• test content using AT devices and software on different browsers and operating systems to check that it works
• test with people with disabilities to understand how they use AT to access your products and services and what their experience is like.

Designing for screen readers

• Designing for Screen Reader Compatibility — WebAIM

Designing for screen magnifiers

• How to make your site accessible for screen magnifiers — Axess Lab

Designing for speech recognition software

For content to work with speech recognition software:

• it needs to be keyboard accessible
• interactive components need accessible names that match the components’ visual presentation and any visible labels.

For other things to think about when designing for speech recognition, see Considerations for Testing with Speech Recognition Software such as Dragon NaturallySpeaking — Level Access.