Ensuring accessibility of digital products is a key consideration for every organisation— and especially in sectors like financial services, education or healthcare, such as the NHS.

Accessibility isn’t just a legal obligation; it’s about making sure your software or apps are inclusive, so everyone, regardless of their abilities, can use them. This includes individuals who are partially sighted, colour-blind, or have mobility or cognitive impairments. 

Accessibility, however, is often misunderstood as something to be tacked on during testing, but true accessibility starts much earlier—during the design phase.

In this blog, we’ll explore best practices to ensure your software product or app is accessible for all, with a focus on early design strategies and tools that help ensure accessibility long before the first line of code is written. 

Why Accessibility Matters for All 

Building accessible software or apps ensures that people of all abilities can engage with your digital products. It creates a more inclusive experience and opens up your service to a wider audience. For sectors like education and public healthcare, accessibility is essential to ensuring no one is left behind. 

Not only does accessibility make good ethical and business sense, but it is also required by law in many countries. In the UK, regulations such as the Equality Act 2010 and Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018 mandate that digital products must meet accessibility standards. 

Best Practices for Ensuring Accessibility 

1. Start with Accessibility in the Design Phase 

Accessibility isn’t just about adding features or performing checks at the end of development. It should be embedded in the design phase to ensure that your product is accessible from the start. Good UX/UI design plays a key role in achieving this. 

• Use Accessibility Tools in Design: Platforms like Figma have plugins that help designers verify accessibility. Tools such as Stark and Contrast check for colour contrast issues and simulate how designs might appear to users with different forms of colour blindness. This ensures that accessibility is being addressed even before development begins. 

• Consistent and Simple Navigation: Design your user interface with simplicity and consistency in mind. Users with cognitive disabilities or screen readers benefit from intuitive navigation that follows a predictable pattern. Keep buttons, menus, and interactions simple and clear. 

• Text Readability: Use legible fonts and ensure that users can adjust text size without breaking the design. This helps those with visual impairments read content more easily. Keep font sizes large enough, and use line spacing that avoids overcrowding text. 

• Colour Contrast: Ensure there’s enough contrast between background and text to accommodate users with low vision or colour blindness. WCAG 2.1 recommends a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text. 

By implementing accessibility-focused design principles, you ensure that quality is baked into your product long before testing, resulting in a more inclusive experience from the outset. 

2. Incorporate Screen Reader Compatibility 

Screen readers are essential for users who are visually impaired or blind. When designing your software, ensure that all content is accessible and understandable for screen readers. Key considerations include: 

• Alt Text for Images: Every non-decorative image should have descriptive alt text that helps screen reader users understand its context. The alt text should be concise and meaningful, avoiding unnecessary details while conveying the purpose of the image. 

• Logical Heading Structure: Use a logical heading structure (H1, H2, H3) to allow screen readers to easily navigate through sections. This helps users get an overview of the content and jump to the section they need. 

• Accessible Forms: Ensure that all form elements, like buttons and input fields, have clear labels and descriptions that screen readers can interpret. It’s also critical that forms are navigable by keyboard alone. 

3. Ensure Keyboard Accessibility 

Not all users interact with software through a mouse or touchscreen. For users with motor disabilities or vision impairments, keyboard navigation is essential. 

• Focus States: Make sure focus states are visible when users tab through interactive elements like buttons or links. This helps keyboard users see where they are on the page and makes navigation smoother. 

• Logical Tab Order: Ensure that the tab order follows the logical flow of the content. Users should be able to move through the page in a way that makes sense for the layout and functionality of the interface. 

• Avoid Keyboard Traps: Ensure that keyboard users can exit dropdowns, pop-ups, and other interactive elements easily. Keyboard traps occur when users are stuck inside an element and can’t tab out, leading to frustration and poor accessibility. 

4. Accessible Colour Schemes and Visual Cues 

While design is an important part of the process, it’s essential to make sure the visual experience works for everyone. People who are colour-blind, for example, may not distinguish between certain shades, making your content harder to understand. 

• Use More Than Just Colour for Cues: For users with colour blindness, ensure that any critical information conveyed by colour (such as errors, success states, or warnings) is also communicated using text or icons. For example, an error message should include a red exclamation mark alongside text, rather than relying on the red colour alone. 

• Test for Colour Blindness: Use colour-blind simulation tools to see how your design will appear to users with different types of colour blindness. Adjust your colour palette where necessary to maintain clarity for all users. 

5. Incorporate Accessibility Testing Early and Often 

While accessibility begins in the design phase, testing remains crucial. However, testing should be an ongoing process throughout the product lifecycle rather than something saved for the end. 

• Automated Accessibility Testing Tools: Integrate automated tools such as Axe, WAVE, or Lighthouse into your development workflow. These tools can quickly scan for common issues such as missing alt text, improper heading structure, or poor colour contrast. 

• Manual Testing with Real Users: Automated tools are helpful, but they only catch around 30% of potential accessibility issues. Manual testing with users who have disabilities or with assistive technologies (e.g., screen readers, voice recognition software) provides invaluable feedback on how your product functions in real-world scenarios. 

• Cross-Device Testing: Ensure that your app or software is accessible across different devices and platforms. Mobile users, in particular, might have different accessibility needs compared to desktop users. 

6. Ongoing Monitoring and Updates 

Accessibility is not a one-time task. As you add new features and updates to your product, continue testing for accessibility. Regular audits will help you keep track of changes and identify new barriers that may emerge as your software evolves. 

Prioritising Accessibility in UX/UI Design 

A key takeaway from these best practices is that accessibility starts with UX/UI design. When accessibility is prioritised early on—before any code is written—you significantly reduce the number of issues you need to fix later. Incorporating accessibility into your design and development process not only ensures inclusivity but also improves the overall user experience for everyone. 

For example, tools like Stark and Contrast that integrate with Figma help designers identify colour contrast issues and simulate how users with disabilities will experience the design. This level of quality control in the design phase saves time and resources down the road and ensures that accessibility isn’t just an afterthought. 

How Integrella Can Help with Accessibility 

At Integrella, we understand the importance of creating inclusive digital products that meet the diverse needs of all users. We can work with your team to integrate accessibility into every stage of your product development, from design to testing and beyond. Whether you’re building a new software product or improving an existing app, we can help you adopt accessibility best practices that ensure your product is truly accessible for all. 

Get in Touch Today! 

If you’re ready to make accessibility a priority for your software product or app, contact Integrella. Let us help you develop a robust accessibility strategy that ensures your product is inclusive, user-friendly, and compliant with industry standards.