How Storyblok can help you create accessible content

Whether you are interested in opening up your digital content to a broader audience, are concerned about web accessibility from an SEO perspective or are legally required to comply with certain accessibility standards - you have come to the right place. In this article, we will explore what Web Accessibility is, why it might be interesting for you and how picking the right CMS can help you and your team to create accessible content. 

What is Web Accessibility? 

Web Accessibility means that the tools, technologies, and content we create in the digital space are accessible to people with disabilities. Just like we have curb cuts in our physical spaces, we need to accommodate different needs and situations digitally as well. 

In practice, this means providing text alternatives for visual content, like alt-text for images or video captions; using semantic HTML to provide context for screen readers and making sure our websites and apps can be navigated not only by mouse or trackpad but also with a keyboard or assistive technology. It can also mean providing enough color contrast between text and the background to ensure good visibility. 

Why is Web Accessibility important? 

First and foremost, access to information, also in the digital space, is a human right, as defined by the United Nations. Period. 

If this isn’t enough, there is the sheer force in numbers: Statistically speaking, 15% of the global population experience some form of disability throughout their lifetime. And while global data is hard to measure, and the experience of disability is also difficult to quantify, 15% of the global population means over one billion individuals. And even if that’s just a ballpark, that’s quite a powerful one, especially if you start thinking about this one billion’s massive spending power. And that’s not all. 

The beauty of Web Accessibility is: It benefits all of us. 

Web Accessibility doesn’t only benefit those 15%; it benefits all of us. Of course, there are people with different kinds of disabilities: physical, auditory, cognitive, visual, or neurological, just to name a few. But there are also many temporary impairments or situational limitations in which Web Accessibility will come in handy. 

Someone could be deaf or hard of hearing, which would be an example of a permanent disability; someone else with an ear infection might experience temporary hearing loss, and we can all imagine a situation in which we can’t use the sound on a video, and rely on captions - imagine being in a quiet environment like a library or commuting on a train. Take a look at the table below for more examples of this categorization.

You can also imagine a parent holding a newborn, only having one hand to use their keyboard, people using small screens benefiting from the ability to zoom in or images not loading due to a slow internet connection - where alternative texts come in handy.

Cases like these are the perfect examples of all of us benefiting from the implementation of Web Accessibility. 

Web Accessibility improves SEO 

As an added bonus, implementing Web Accessibility will improve your search engine optimization. Search engines like Google crawl your web page similarly to a screen reader, and if you make sure the code is semantically correct (thus great for users of screen readers), it will greatly improve your SEO performance. 

This, again, will reflect positively on your user experience - and it can be argued that by improving Web Accessibility, you will unlock a large potential user group and make existing customers happier. 

What role does the CMS play in Web Accessibility? 

Ideally, the content management system is where your whole team collaborates and everything ties in together. Your designers add new visuals, you store your assets, build new pages, tell stories about your products, and services and collaborate. Picking the right CMS will make creating accessible content for a broad audience a smooth journey rather than a bumpy ride. It will enable you and your team to keep your website inclusive. Web Accessibility should be an organic outcome of content creation, not a hassle. 

Therefore, it's pivotal to choose a CMS that aligns with your accessibility goals and provides you with the necessary tools to create an inclusive digital experience for everyone.

Benefits of a Headless CMS for Web Accessibility

There are many benefits to going headless over the traditional, monolithic CMS: 

• No additional baggage: You can follow the best-of-breed approach and only implement the tools you need. 
• No compromises: No pre-installed themes or packages, no restrictions in your layouts or setting up the components. You get a clean slate to deliver your content - without any technical depth. 
• Choose your tech stack: a headless CMS is technology agnostic, meaning that you can work with your preferred technologies. This way, your development team is well-versed in the programming language they choose and can focus on improving the quality of the code, and creating accessible components and structures. 
• Room to think: Ideally, a headless CMS will create headspace for you to focus on what’s really important instead of keeping you busy with administrative tasks and overhead. 

How can Storyblok help you create Accessible Content? 

As a headless CMS, Storyblok lets you choose your preferred tech stack and implement any additional tools through APIs. This way, you can choose the tools you need carefully - keeping Web Accessibility in mind. This also means you can work with technologies you and your development team are already familiar with - which will likely improve the output quality and implementation speed. 

Of course, a CMS, regardless of how good its capabilities, is no guarantee for an accessible website. Automated and manual testing is crucial to make sure content is accessible. But the right CMS can help you pave the way for creating accessible content and letting your team know why certain things are important. Here are a few things that you could do in Storyblok to improve your projects’ Web Accessibility: 

• Making alternative texts for images and captions for videos a requirement
• Using explanatory notes for certain fields and providing context for editors
• Making the most of atomic design and defining which components can be used where
• Implementing the hierarchical use of headlines, either in the frontend or through the usage of individual blocks for different headline types
• Disabling writing of markdown to make sure all code is kept in one place and continuously tested
• Limiting the use of rich text (for example, restricting the use of headlines to avoid inaccessible markup)

If you are interested in implementing these accessibility features and more, you can find detailed instructions in this article on creating an accessible website with Storyblok.

Summary: Should you care about Web Accessibility? And if so, how can the right CMS help you create accessible content? 

Web Accessibility is important for all of us. The topic is becoming increasingly important for businesses worldwide as new accessibility requirements and laws come into place all over the world in upcoming years, and the awareness for previously underrepresented user groups comes into focus. By choosing the right CMS, organizations can set up their teams for success in creating accessible content for a broad audience. A headless CMS like Storyblok is a great choice in this endeavour as it gives you the freedom to pick your own tech stack and adapt content structures, additional tools and layout to your own needs.

Empower your team to create inclusive content.