What’s the difference between accessibility and usability? And how can you, as an editor, make sure your content is accessible and easy for users to navigate?
Defining accessibility and usability
Accessibility is important for websites because it allows all visitors to our sites, including people with a visual impairment or other disability, to navigate our sites with ease. It ensures that every visitor is able to retain the same information that any other site visitor would. There are also certain regulations in place that ensure we maintain accessible sites, including the most recent requirement to make sure that all site digital documents are accessible per ADA Title II updates.
Usability, on the other hand, focuses on the user’s experience. How easily can the visitor find what they are looking for? What content needs to change so that the content is clear on both desktop and mobile devices? Is the content relevant to the visitor? Many times, we examine this by conducting user experience (UX) interviews to see how visitors navigate the site and find ways to improve.
Our focus is the site visitor for both accessibility and usability. Our goal is to make sure that all users cannot only navigate the site, but also understand the content, flow, interactivity, and media. However, a site can be technically accessible and meet all standards but still have poor usability (e.g., confusing navigation). Conversely, a site might be highly usable for a majority of users, but still have barriers for users with impairments.
Making sure your posts are accessible and incorporate a thoughtful user experience
- Review the sections you are responsible for. Are there any misuse of colors, fonts, or font sizes? Are heading levels in the correct order? Do all images have alt descriptions?
- Review your posts and consider if users can easily find what they are looking for. Is a post missing a tag, or could it be added to a category? Could two blog posts be combined into one?
- Use the same terms, style, and tone across your posts, matching the overall site and UC Berkeley brand standards as well.