Patterns for accessible webchats
Patterns for accessible webchats
Posted by:
Theodor Vararu, Posted on: 9 December 2016
–
Categories:
Accessibility, Code, Design
I’m a developer at the Government Digital Service and I work with a team that, earlier this year, built a custom prototype webchat, as part of the webchat alpha.
We looked at which technologies help make webchat software more usable with screen readers. This blog post talks about what we did.
Why we focused on screen readers
Let’s be clear, there’s more to accessibility than just screen readers. Other accessibility needs are better met by improvements in visual design and content design. Users with visual impairments for example, may benefit from more accessible visual design, while users with dyslexia may benefit from accessible content design.
Screen readers are slightly different because they can be made to work better with very specific web platform technologies that are well known and documented, such as WAI-ARIA.
Below are some of our most important findings.
Buttons and labels
Labels provide context for screen readers so that they can tell users which options are available to them.
If your message submission field doesn’t have a visible label, you [...]