Imagine you’re walking into a store where all the signs or labels are in Braille (the written language of the visually impaired). Obviously, you’ll find it difficult to get anything done in the shop, right? This is how differently-abled people feel when they visit a non-inclusive website.
Alarmingly, about 6.6 million US employees, or 4.4% of the US workforce, reported some kind of disability in December 2024, as per the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Additionally, about 56,791,260 websites failed to comply with accessibility requirements.
That’s because disabled users will feel left out, as they will not be able to comprehend the information there easily.
So brands that do not create a welcoming experience for differently-abled people will miss out. For instance, consider someone who cannot hear something and wishes to see a video on your website.
You would have to incorporate video subtitles to ensure that he/she could easily access the video. But what is the connection between accessibility and inclusivity? Let’s take a look below.
Anatomy of an Inclusive Website
In simple terms, inclusivity refers to the practice of creating websites that serve all users. On the other hand, accessibility refers to ensuring that all website visitors can interact with the website.
Some other key points about inclusivity and accessibility include:
| Inclusivity | Accessibility |
| Mainly focuses on various abilities, preferences, and abilities. | Mainly focuses on including elements that allow users to interact with websites easily |
| Some of its elements include easy-to-understand user navigation, dynamism (mobile-friendly), and universally accessible to all parties. | Some of its elements include alt text for images, keyboard navigation options, closed captions in multiple languages for videos, and audio text reading features. |
| An inclusive website is also an accessible one. | An accessible website is not necessarily an inclusive one. |
| For example, consider the websites of popular e-commerce websites like Amazon. | For example, consider the website of the globally reputed public service broadcaster, the BBC. |
As you can see, just making a website accessible isn’t enough. You need to make it inclusive as well.
Let us now move on to what you can do to create a website below.
Best Practices For Creating an All-Inclusive Website Experience
1. Utilizing Inclusive Images
While using a stick image can be tempting, we recommend looking beyond them. That’s because such images do not address the cultural context of the regions they operate in. Furthermore, they sometimes cross as offensive as they are not current.
This discourages people from exploring your website further, which negatively impacts its ranking. After all, as you know, increased dwell time positively impacts SEO-linked ranking.
Additionally, as per a report by McKinsey and Company, racially and ethnically diverse companies are 35% more likely to get ahead of their competitors.
That’s why your images should address the core message in a visually appealing and neutral manner.
For instance, picture a hotel booking website.
If you wish to serve all users, you must include images representing all communities in the USA, like the Asian community, the African-American community, and the Spanish-speaking community.
You’ll also have to focus on abstract or indirect images to convey certain meanings or terminologies.
For example, you could include vector outline icons highlighting the different facilities offered by each hotel instead of real-life images. This way, you’ll present all the information in a generic, accessible-to-all manner.
Another way you can tackle the inclusivity issue is by including pictures of the locations of your hotel, which do not include people. You’ll be able to maintain the visual appeal of your website and attract many people.
2. Reviewing the Website Structure
While you might wish to maintain the uniformity of your website’s structure for all regions, we advise against it. That’s because every country processes and accesses all information differently.
Furthermore, you should create a responsive layout that resonates with visually impaired people. Otherwise, you could lose out to about 90% of websites that use this design style.
We also recommend creating a well-spaced structure. This will prevent your information from being stacked haphazardly.
You should also use a font that conforms to the global accessibility guidelines, as per the World Wide Consortium.
For instance, say you’re designing an e-commerce website for the USA and India which will go live in January. A website designer San Francisco would focus more on self-care products, beauty products, gift ideas, and skiing gear.
On the other hand, a website designed for India would focus more on electronic products, ethnic dresses, shoes and home Decor, for example.
The layout of both these websites would be different and highlight country-specific products. For instance, the USA website would highlight self-care products, while India’s would highlight electronics products.
3. Adding a Digital Voice Interface and User Notifications
This is an important feature as some users might be partially, temporarily, or permanently visually disabled. You should also consider using this feature for people who cannot understand English or the language of your present website.
The digital voice interface will help these people hear the content within the website in English or their native language.
We recommend adding a digital notification feature to inform users when they have completed an action or switched between web pages. Another thing you can do is create an AI and ML*-enabled voice assistant, which would guide users throughout the website.
AI and ML: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
For example, you could design a voice assistant on a digital hospital’s website to help users:
- Create an account
- Book a consultation and more
However, you should avoid adding stereotypical voices or inflections to avoid conflict.
You could also add a voice interface to let visitors know about the contents of a video or image on your website. This could lead to a 47% increase in the time users spend on your website, as per Sprout Worth.
4. Not Adding Text Inside The Images
You should not include textual elements inside your images. That might interfere with how the digital voice interface describes or speaks about a particular image when a visually impaired person wishes to know more about it.
Furthermore, adding too much textual information inside an image could reduce the visual appeal and make people leave. It could also lead to difficulties in reading the information you wish to present.
For instance, if you’re designing a tourist website, you should avoid stylizing the text. We also recommend you maintain a clean layout, with textual information wherever relevant. This will ensure that people spend more time and book trips from your website.
5. Highlight the Focus Areas
In simple terms, you should bookmark certain sections on your website where you will present important information, user-information fields, links, or buttons.
These areas will lead to information about your top services or products, your USP, and other aspects that depend on the website. You can use the data from heat maps*, usability surveys**, and more.
Heat maps – these are graphs that highlight the areas of a web page that people most commonly spend their time on.
Usability surveys – these surveys are live testing sessions wherein you invite people to your office and let them use the website live. You can use the feedback they provide to make any changes required.
For example, on a banking website, you should highlight areas like the quick services area, loans area, and customer balance section. If you do so, you’ll be able to capture your users’ attention within 2.6 seconds.
6. Adjusting Your Color Contrast
Lastly, you should adopt a color palette that is not too ‘loud’ (bright) or understated (dull). Instead, you should choose colours that are psychologically and visually appealing to everyone.
For example, if you have a website for baby clothes, we recommend you go for a soft color palette that involves pastel shades and a neutral background.
This palette will create a visually pleasing effect.
Some Additional Considerations for an All-Inclusive Website
Remember to use simple content with no jargon on your inclusive websites. This will ensure that everyone can understand what you’re trying to convey. Furthermore, avoid overly complex layouts and stick to clean, minimalistic structures wherever possible.
That’s because, as per WebFx, your website visitors will spend only 50 milliseconds to scan and form an impression about your website. Another thing you can do is highlight focus areas and avoid complex animation.
Lastly, remember to optimize your website for keyboard navigation since some of your website visitors might be motor-function impaired.
The Final Word
You must remember that website design is quite a responsive field that will continue to evolve. Hence, we recommend you continue to study the latest trends to ensure you can maintain a relevant website for all users.