Website accessibility — what's on us, and what's on you
Some people visiting your site can't see the images, because they use a screen reader that reads the page aloud. Others enlarge the text, move around with the keyboard instead of a mouse, or browse on a small phone in bright sunlight. Accessibility means making sure each of them can find your phone number and book a visit. Part of that work we do while building the site; part of it depends on how you fill in the content afterwards.
What's on our side
We build the site with a clear heading structure, so that screen readers and search engines can tell what's a title and what's body text. The site adapts to phone, tablet and desktop screens. In the content panel, images have a field for alternative text — a description of what the image shows.
We don't, however, declare the site compliant with any particular accessibility standards or regulations. If your business is subject to such obligations, ask your lawyer — assessing whether and to what extent they apply to you isn't something we do.
What depends on you
If you have the content panel, every new piece of content you add affects the site's accessibility. A few habits make a big difference:
- fill in the alternative text for every image — one sentence about what it shows (see How to upload and crop images)
- use the editor's headings instead of enlarging and bolding ordinary text — that way a long post can be navigated with a screen reader too (see How to use the text editor)
- name links after where they lead — "our price list" rather than "click here"
- don't put important information only in an image — opening hours written into a poster photo are invisible to a screen reader
On Business Card we enter the content for you, but you can send us image descriptions along with the files — you know them better than anyone.
Wondering what else can be added to your site? Take a look at Growing your site.