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Accessibility and SEO

Accessibility

To meet the standards required for the Americans with Disabilities Act Standards for Accessible Design (ADA), the recommendations in this guide align with WCAG 2.1 level AA and higher.

Accessibility means that content is useful to and usable by everyone, including people with disabilities. Features of accessible content include:

  • Content that can be accessed through the use of a keyboard only-i.e. can be used without a mouse.

  • Tab order: everything can be accessed by tabbing, and content appears in the correct order.

  • Color contrast and font sizes that meet minimum standards for readability, including accommodating color-blindness.

  • Hierarchical structure that helps users understand the relationships between parts of content, and navigate to desired content easily.

  • Clear and consistent labeling.

Embed code can present accessibility barriers for active technology and keyboard users.

  • Screen readers can't read embedded files like PDFs and PowerPoint presentations.

  • It's not possible to guarantee the accessibility of third-party embeds, widgets, and applications.

  • Social media posts are often made by people without accessibility training, so the embedded content may be missing Alt text or violate WCAG guidelines.

Accessibility and Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website or a web page from search engines

There are a number of areas where accessibility guidelines overlap with SEO best practices, so you’ll be improving your content performance for both your audience and search engines.

Areas of overlap include:

  • Browser page titles

  • H1 Headings

  • H2-H5+ subheadings

  • Language tags

  • Metadata page summaries

  • Plain language

  • Alt-text for images

  • URL formats

The articles that make up the website section of the Knowledge Base describes best practices for each of these, as well as common errors and how to fix them.

Style Guide Alignment

Many established internal style guides originally developed from a print world, and may not accommodate the technical considerations of digital properties, such as accessibility, mobile technologies and SEO. If there is a conflict between style recommendations, the accessible UX best practices in this Knowledge Base should take precedence to ensure ADA compliance.

  • Content that is readable naturally and with assistive technology (e.g. screen-readers)

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