Structure and Navigation
Structure and Navigation
Accessible website structure and navigation will make it easier for users to find the information they need and navigate your website more efficiently, improving the user experience for everyone.
- Use headings and subheadings to organize your content: This will make it easier for users to scan and navigate your website. You can also use color, font, and size to indicate hierarchy and distinguish different sections of your website.
- Use a clear and consistent navigation menu: This will make it easier for users to find their way around your website.
- Ensure that your website follows a logical sequence: Check that the order of the interactive elements on the page follows a logical sequence, such as from left to right and top to bottom.
- Provide a sitemap or search function: A sitemap is a file that provides a blueprint of a website's content and structure. It is typically in XML format and lists all the pages and resources that are part of a website, including its relationships and hierarchy. Sitemaps are used by search engines and web crawlers to better understand a website's organization and contents, and to index the pages for search results. This can help users find the information they need more quickly.
- Ensure that your website is mobile-friendly: Design with mobile-first principles in mind so that your website can be responsive to smaller screen sizes and has mobile-friendly navigation.
- Ensure that your website is accessible using keyboard-only navigation: Use the "Tab" key to move through interactive elements on the page, such as links, buttons, and form fields and make sure that each interactive element can be focused. You should also ensure that keyboard users can access drop-down menus, pop-ups, and other interactive elements.
- Consider defining ARIA roles: You can use ARIA roles and attributes to enhance accessibility for screen reader users. You can do this by identifying the interactive elements on your website that require additional accessibility support, such as buttons, links, and form fields and applying the ARIA Role and attributes to the HTML code for each specific element. For example, you can use the "button" role for a button, or the "link" role for a link.
