When you design a website how do you start? What is your aim? What are your goals? These questions are at the heart of web design basics. These kinds of questions should be easy to answer for each project you do. However, there is another largely important factor all designers should be considering when they work, and that is their website’s guests. An equally imperative part of web design is considering how guests to any website will interact with it and planning accordingly.

Building a website that is informative and communicates a client’s desires is essential, but your job is not complete until you’ve considered your client’s customers, too. When you design a website, you have to consider a novice perspective alongside your own. The most successful websites are truly accessible to everyone. To help you, we have compiled a checklist of 3 easy steps you can take to ensure the best accessibility for every guest.

1 Is Your Website Design Accessible to Differently Abled People?

In our modern world, content needs to be used by large groups of people. This is especially true as the internet has become increasingly accessed by different populations, both in demographics and ability. Nowadays, there are tons of gadgets and inventions that allow people with limited sight or mobility to use the internet. The presence of these people should be valued and acknowledged in all designs online.

What many web designers don’t realize is that in actuality, this is not simply a choice but a pressing issue for many web users. In fact, The ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act and its governing body) has a system of guidelines in place for websites to follow. These guides make sure different websites are in fact ADA compliant.

An ADA compliant website is essential these days for many businesses. The ADA states that web content must be accessible to those who are deaf and/or blind. It also addresses building content for the population of people who navigate the internet by voice, and screen readers or additional assistive technologies. All in all, it should be an essential part of your web design.

2 How Does Your Design Shift Across Platforms?

Another factor in accessibility is how your content is affected by its platform. Good web design should consider all the ways the website can be accessed. When you design your site, have you considered mobile visitors? And have you considered how are different mobile visitors from different operating systems might be viewing the site? Does your design translate across an iOS and an Android platform? How does it fare when it is looked at by a tablet user?

Creating a strong design that looks good across many platforms means that you are considering your customer on a deeper level. There is nothing wrong with changing up your design to match the needs of different platforms. Aesthetics are important for communicating information, but your top priority should be making things easy to locate regardless of how someone uses the site.

3 Have You Made It Easy to Shift Important Settings Like Language?

Lastly, if you are designing for an international or multi-lingual audience, it is necessary to let people know they can access the website in different languages or formats. Is it easy to do that on your site?

Making sure customers can quickly switch between languages or formats is really important. Otherwise, your work goes to waste, and a client’s website is not showcased to its fullest. A prominent part of your design should be something that shows people how they can change the language of the site. Whether you use an icon, or simply state the languages you have available and make them clickable, visitors to the website should not have to struggle to find this information.

With the 3 steps mentioned above, you can make your website more accessible, and in doing so, reach a wider demographic of users.