When you look at the above image, what do you see? The image represents our often ambiguous web accessibility efforts. Does the image depict a sunrise or a sunset? The decision’s you make about web accessibility may vary depending on how you view the image. Or how you look at your web content….
In an attempt to determine the actual level of web accessibility, WebAim decided to do a massive data study to determine what was happening in the real world.
In their study, WebAIM has analyzed the home pages for the top 1 million web sites and collected an immense volume of accessibility data. The results provide great insight into the current state of accessibility.
Unfortunately, significant and pervasive issues are present across much of the web. While there is much work to be done to improve accessibility, these research findings can help us identify patterns so accessibility efforts can be better focused.
Read WebAim’s full home page Accessibility research report
Check the analysis results for any home page in WebAim’s sample
Here are just a few of WebAim’s notable findings:
- Home pages averaged 59.6 detectable errors each.
- 7.6% of all home page elements (1 in 13) have a detectable accessibility error.
- The WCAG failure rate for home pages was at least 97.8%.
- Low contrast text was the most common detectable issue with an average of 36 instances of low contrasts text on each home pages.
- One-third of all images (12.3 images per page on average) were missing alternative text.
- 59% of form inputs were not properly labeled.
- Home pages with ARIA present averaged 11.2 more detectable errors than pages without ARIA.
- The report outlines numerous common web technologies with details on how these technologies correspond to increased or decreased accessibility errors.
There is much, much more in WebAim’s full report.
