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Written by Finn Ruijter, 10 February 2021

WCAG: Accessible WordPress websites for everyone

WCAG promotes digital accessibility

About 25% of the Dutch population has some form of disability, which may cause these individuals to have difficulty visiting, reading or understanding traditional websites. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are there to give equal opportunity to all inter-users and ensure digital accessibility. These guidelines come in three levels, with increasing degrees of difficulty: A, AA and AAA. Requirements at levels A and AA are mandatory for Dutch (semi-)government websites.

WCAG provides opportunities for businesses and organizations

In a barrier-free website…

  • Is the text size adjustable by the user;
  • Is the contrast of essential elements adjustable;
  • Is the website controllable with special software.

Great contrast

Did you know that the Netherlands has as many as 700,000 colorblind people and more than 200,000 visually impaired people? The WCAG guidelines therefore require website owners to use a contrast ratio of at least 4.5 to 1. 2manydots ensures that both the text and graphics on your website meet these requirements.

Change font size

Another WCAG guideline is to provide a feature to help change the font size. 2manydots builds in such a browser-independent feature so that visitors can increase the text to the maximum required 200% anytime, anywhere. No longer do you lose visitors right away because they feel left out.

Having text read aloud

With a handy plug-in on your website, you offer users the ability to have text in a variety of languages read aloud by a lifelike voice. The visitor does not need any further software for this, nor are there any system requirements. So this convenient functionality works on all devices. This is convenient not only for visually impaired users, but also for those who are on the go or can’t find their reading glasses for a while.

Describing visual elements

For the blind and visually impaired, an ordinary Web site can be a frustrating user experience. To facilitate their search for information, visual elements should have a clear text alternative. 2manydots ensures that headlines, images and videos are clearly defined. This benefits not only your users, but also bots that scan websites, such as Google’s.