Accessibility is about making the web work for people with disabilities (and everyone else). Sustainability is doing the right thing for the planet. Some of the decisions we make when we build or add content to our websites can improve accessibility and sustainability at the same time.
People come to your website to do a job – read your news, find your contact details, make an appointment. When you focus on accessibility and sustainability you will also improve performance and make it easier for people to complete their tasks.
Think about the core purpose of your website and let this guide your decision-making. We’ll give you some pointers below for improving accessibility and sustainability for images, code, navigation, tracking, and interactive features.
Optimise images
Images need different resolutions for different purposes. To look good in print you’d need an image that’s several MBs in size. But for online use – websites & social media – the image only needs to be a few hundred kilobytes.
To optimise an image for use online you can resize it and then reduce the file size by compressing it.
A lot of modern phones will take pictures where the longest edge can measure 3000px or more, which is simply too large for web use.
If you add a large, uncompressed image to your website, it will consume more data and slow down page loads. This has major implications for how much energy is used to view your website and the emissions that it then creates. This also impacts search engine rankings as performance is a ranking factor.
Smaller, compressed images mean faster load times for users on older devices or limited data; and a smaller carbon footprint per page view because it uses less energy.
Whoever authors your website content is responsible for making sure it is accessible and sustainable. Try resizing and compressing images using a tool like Squoosh.
Clean code
There are lots of ways to build a website: different content management systems; different templating languages; out of the box or custom work. Understanding a little bit about how a website is built can help you prioritise accessibility and sustainability for the next time you commission a new website.
Developers are responsible for converting design decisions into functional pages that your users can interact with. Developers can use technologies such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript. HTML is the foundation for the build, JavaScript files add interaction, such as maps, tabs or carousels, and CSS files add styling. Many of the decisions made by a developer will determine how accessible and sustainable the end result is.
A slow website is frustrating for everyone. ‘Clean’ code improves the performance of your website for all your users and reduces bloat. Screen readers may struggle to correctly interpret complex web pages built with convoluted code, excessive JavaScript, or non-standard HTML structures. This has a direct and negative impact on people who rely on assistive technology to understand and navigate the web.
If non-standard HTML isn’t used, then you have to apply custom code like ARIA or Javascript on top to provide the same context and functionality for users. Then already you have two layers of code rather than one and the size of your website is bigger than it needs to be.
It’s really hard trying to retro-fit clean code as you can be limited by the code that is already used and it can be more time consuming, so make the case for accessibility and sustainability right from the start of your next project so your developer or agency understands it’s a priority.
Test the performance of one of your web pages to see for yourself how it is likely to perform on a ‘low-tier’ device. For example, Chrome Developer tools has a throttling setting.
Make user journeys short
Website design is much more than just look and feel. User experience (UX) design is critical to a successful website, and will consider things like user journeys, information architecture and content hierarchy.
Web pages with dense content, confusing and intricate navigation and cluttered layouts can impose a higher cognitive load on everybody, but particularly on neurodivergent people.
Furthermore, complex web pages often require more resources to load, which can increase page load times. This is another access barrier, one which disproportionately affects people with low-end devices, slow internet connections, and capped data allowances.
Business goals change over time, new content is added, and websites can grow organically. You lose sight of what the user journey should be; users click more and spend longer searching for content.
Clear information architecture means people can get to the information they need more quickly, reducing energy use.
This is something a content strategist can help you with. Our Strategy Director is Isaac. And he’d be happy to help you.
Reduce data tracking
There’s nothing more frustrating than when a website blocks you until you’ve accepted cookies. These tracking scripts are unpredictable and are often the largest contributors to page weight. Furthermore, the cookie banners needed for people to give their consent are not always keyboard accessible.
The first steps you should think about when it comes to collecting user data: Do we really need this data? If so, why?
We recommend Matomo Analytics since it doesn’t require a cookie banner but still collects data that will help you understand how your users navigate through your website and how they engage with the content.
Not every feature adds value
For every new carousel, animation, or new feature, you are potentially adding accessibility barriers and definitely adding weight and affecting the sustainability of your website. The W3C’s sustainability guidelines encourage minimising unnecessary functionality and avoiding resource‑intensive components unless they provide clear user value.
From an accessibility perspective, think about whether the new feature provides clarity and helps your users to complete a task. Has the new content been added in an accessible way? For example, an autoplaying video or image carousel is not accessible. And then ask yourself: how useful is this new feature? Is it worth the energy it consumes?
Think people and planet
W3C’s accessibility standards (WCAG) and sustainability guidance help us to make decisions about our websites that put people and planet first.
As a website manager or content editor, it might seem impossible to have any impact – but nothing could be further from the truth. When you optimise an image, or think about whether an image carousel is the right feature for you, you are prioritising accessibility and sustainability, reducing carbon footprint and helping people to engage with your content.
If you want to know more about the accessibility and sustainability of your website, it’s helpful to know where you currently stand. Get in touch to find out more about our website reviews for accessibility and sustainability.
Let’s build a better web, together.