Amena Kanchwala

What if you’re looking at a carousel filled with captivating pictures, but every time you try to read the message, it just moves on? This would turn your curiosity into frustration, leaving you to wonder what you might have missed For those are not familiar with carousels, they are collections of items called slides, each displaying content such as images, text, or videos. Users can navigate through these slides using buttons or allow them to move them automatically. Carousels are commonly used on websites to highlight featured content or promotions. They can enhance user engagement and create visual interest. However, they also cause significant accessibility challenges for people with disabilities. Inaccessible carousels can confuse, frustrate, and ultimately exclude users from accessing key information.   How Carousel Inaccessibility Impacts Users with Disabilities ·        Screen reader users might get confused or disoriented, if slides t...

Imagine a student named Noah, known for his brilliance in class. Despite his intelligence, he struggles to grasp the concepts of equations taught by his teacher. The reason? Noah is blind, and he cannot see the blackboard or read the textbooks like his peers. This leaves him feeling isolated and excluded in a classroom where knowledge is meant to be shared equally. So, what’s the solution? One option could be providing braille books, enabling him to read and follow along as the teacher explains. However, braille books are costly, and Noah, who may have lost his sight later in life, might not even be familiar with braille. Another, seemingly perfect solution, is equipping him with a laptop and digital textbooks that he can access using screen readers. But what happens if the digital content isn’t accessible with these screen readers? Now, consider another scenario. Sophia and her friends are excited to take a crash course on generative AI. But Sophia, who is hearing impaired, finds ...

  Imagine if someone handed you a blank piece of paper to read. How would it feel? An inaccessible website or software is just like that blank paper, perhaps with text that isn't printed properly. It’s frustrating and exclusionary. In my previous articles, I've discussed how making digital products accessible is neither difficult nor expensive. Today, I want to discuss 11 simple tips that can make your website and software accessible to everyone. This is particularly important for developers, startups and entrepreneurs in their early stages, as accessibility should be integrated into planning and development processes right from the start. Think of it like adding ramps to a building—it's much easier to include them in the initial layout. Page Title Page <title> is the first thing that screen reader users listen to while navigating the page. Blind users cannot glance quickly at a web page to see what is it about, so they rely on the page title to get that inf...