Boost Accessibility and SEO with the Best WordPress Widgets and Plugins for Universities
Accessibility is a crucial aspect for any website, especially for universities.
It ensures that users with disabilities have equal access to the information and resources provided on the website. Additionally, an accessible website can also boost SEO by improving the user experience and making it easier for search engines to crawl and index the website. In this article, we will be discussing the best accessibility widgets and plugins for WordPress and why they are important for universities. We will be looking at popular accessibility widgets and plugins such as WP Accessibility, aXe Accessibility Toolbar, WAVE Toolbar, Accessibility Widget, Easy WordPress Accessibility, and AccessiBe. We will explain how each of these tools can help you improve the accessibility of your website and boost your website’s SEO by making it more user-friendly and search engine friendly.
Accessibility widgets and plugins for WordPress can help make your university website more accessible to users with disabilities. Here are some popular accessibility widgets and plugins for WordPress, and why they are important for universities:
WP Accessibility
The WP Accessibility plugin adds accessibility features to your website, including the ability to change font size, contrast, and cursor size. It’s important for universities because it allows users with visual impairments to better navigate the website. The plugin adds various accessibility features to your website, such as:
- High contrast mode: This feature allows users to switch to a high contrast mode to improve visibility for those with visual impairments.
- Keyboard navigation: This feature makes it easier for users to navigate your website using only a keyboard.
- Skip links: This feature allows users to skip over repetitive navigation links and jump straight to the content.
- ARIA landmarks: This feature adds ARIA landmarks to your website, which help screen readers understand the structure of your website.
- Alt text for images: This feature helps users who are visually impaired to understand the content of images on your website.
- Text resizing: This feature allows users to resize the text on your website to make it easier to read.
- Language attributes: This feature allows you to specify the language of your website, which can help screen readers to read the content correctly.
- Toolbar: This feature adds a toolbar to the front-end of your website that provides users with quick access to various accessibility features.
- Color contrast checker: This feature checks the color contrast of your website and alerts you to any issues that might make it difficult for some users to read the text.
- Translation ready: The plugin is translation ready, you can translate it to any language.
The plugin is designed to help you meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 and Section 508 accessibility standards. It is regularly updated and maintained by a dedicated team to ensure compatibility with the latest version of WordPress.
aXe Accessibility Toolbar
The aXe Accessibility Toolbar is a browser extension that can be used in conjunction with the WordPress platform to test the accessibility of university website pages and identify issues. The toolbar, developed by Deque Systems, allows users to run automated accessibility tests on web pages and identify any accessibility issues that may be present.
The aXe Accessibility Toolbar is available as a browser extension for Chrome, Firefox and Safari, once installed it adds a button to the browser interface, by clicking on the button, aXe will analyze the webpage and identify any potential accessibility issues. It checks the webpage against WCAG 2.0 guidelines and provides detailed information about the issues found, including the type of issue, its location on the page, and how to fix it.
The toolbar allows users to test for accessibility issues such as missing alternative text for images, missing form labels, and improper use of headings. It also includes a color contrast checker, which checks the contrast between text and background colors and ensures that the contrast ratio is high enough for users with low vision to read the text.
The aXe Accessibility Toolbar can be a valuable tool for university web developers, designers, and content creators, as it helps them to identify and fix accessibility issues early in the development process. It can also be used by university accessibility officers or web accessibility experts to ensure that university websites are compliant with accessibility standards.
WAVE Toolbar
The WAVE Toolbar (Web Accessibility Evaluation Toolbar) is a browser extension that can be used to test the accessibility of websites. Developed by WebAIM (Web Accessibility in Mind), it allows users to run automated accessibility tests on web pages and identify any accessibility issues that may be present.
The WAVE Toolbar is available as a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox, once installed it adds a button to the browser interface, by clicking on the button, WAVE will analyze the webpage and identify any potential accessibility issues. It checks the webpage against WCAG 2.0 guidelines and provides detailed information about the issues found, including the type of issue, its location on the page, and how to fix it.
The toolbar allows users to test for accessibility issues such as missing alternative text for images, missing form labels, improper use of headings, and issues with the keyboard focus. It also includes a color contrast checker, which checks the contrast between text and background colors and ensures that the contrast ratio is high enough for users with low vision to read the text.
One of the key features of the WAVE Toolbar is its visual display of accessibility issues. It uses icons and colors to indicate different types of errors and warnings, making it easy for users to identify and understand the issues.
The WAVE Toolbar can be a valuable tool for website developers, designers, and content creators, as it helps them to identify and fix accessibility issues early in the development process. It can also be used by accessibility officers or web accessibility experts to ensure that websites are compliant with accessibility standards. It’s a free tool that can be used by anyone, including universities, to improve their website accessibility.
Userway Accessibility Widget
Userway Accessibility Widget is a browser extension that helps users with disabilities to customize the appearance and behavior of websites to better suit their needs. It is a cloud-based accessibility solution that allows users to change the font size, text spacing, and background color, as well as to enable features such as high-contrast mode, grayscale display, and inverted color display.
The Userway Accessibility Widget can be used to adjust the following features:
- Font size
- Line height
- Letter spacing
- Word spacing
- Text color
- Background color
- Invert color
- Grayscale
- High contrast
- Keyboard navigation
- Screen reader support
The widget is easy to use and it can be activated by clicking on the icon in the browser’s toolbar or by using keyboard shortcuts. Once activated, users can adjust the settings by clicking on the icon and selecting the options they want to change. The changes made by the widget are saved in the browser and are applied to all web pages visited.
The Userway Accessibility Widget is available as a browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, and also can be integrated into websites by adding a single line of code. It can be a valuable tool for users with visual impairments, dyslexia, or other conditions that affect their ability to read text on web pages. It can also be used by people who want to customize the appearance of web pages for personal preference.
AccessiBe
AccessiBe is an automated accessibility solution that uses machine learning and AI to help websites conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. It is designed to make it easy for website owners to make their websites more accessible to users with disabilities, including those with visual, auditory, motor, and cognitive impairments.
AccessiBe works by analyzing a website and identifying any issues that may make it difficult for users with disabilities to access its content. It then provides a range of solutions to address these issues, such as adding alternative text to images, providing captions for videos, and making sure that the website is keyboard-navigable.
AccessiBe also provides a range of customization options, such as the ability to change the font size, text spacing, and background color. It also includes features such as high-contrast mode, grayscale display, and inverted color display.
One of the key features of AccessiBe is that it is fully automated, which means that once it is installed, it will continue to monitor and adapt to the website, ensuring that it remains accessible even if the website is updated.
AccessiBe can be implemented on any website by adding a single line of code, it’s a paid service, and it offers a free trial. It can be a valuable tool for website owners and web developers who want to ensure that their websites are accessible to users with disabilities, including universities and educational institutions.
It is important for universities to make their website accessible for everyone, especially for students and staff with disabilities, because it helps to ensure that everyone can access the information and resources they need. Additionally, having an accessible website is legally required in many countries.