For most of us, using a mouse or trackpad is second nature. It’s how we find the Google search bar, scroll endless web pages, follow links, and click through forms. It’s easy to take it for granted. However, for many individuals around the world, using a trackpad can be challenging. That may include people living with neuromuscular disorders like muscular dystrophy, neurological conditions like Parkinson’s disease, individuals with arthritis or tendonitis, traumatic brain injury, or strokes… the list goes on. Other groups may struggle with moving graphics or rely on assistive technology to help compensate for a visual impairment. They’re not always obvious, but accessibility limitations collectively impact a lot of people. That’s why, as we communicate with rare and hard-to-treat patient populations, we should always strive to continuously consider and incorporate the latest accessibility guidelines.
It’s the right thing to do. However, there are other benefits. Accessibility best practices often closely align with search engine optimization (SEO) strategies. Google incentivizes websites that provide a good user experience to all, including those with accessibility issues. One example is Alternative Text (aka alt text), which helps screen readers accurately describe webpage images. More broadly, when a site is accessible, visitors can readily navigate, find information, and engage with the content. Search engines also take user signals (such as time on site and bounce rate) into consideration, so a better user experience can translate into improved rankings and more traffic.
So how can life science and healthcare companies prioritize accessibility during a hectic new website build? The good news is that many of the steps and best practices are relatively easy and efficient to implement––provided you understand the audience and have an experienced web development team. Below are some example considerations for different stages of the process.
Web accessibility best practices
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (e.g., WCAG 2.1) detail a range of best practices that apply to different features and components in the web development journey. While the list is expansive, below are some example considerations.
Color contrast: This is relevant for a variety of people with eye conditions or who experience poor screen visibility (due to the device or lighting and location). Teams are often aware of color contrast during initial design phases, but it’s also important to evaluate when making small updates, like adding new CTA buttons. WCAG guidelines outline both minimum contrast (Level AA) and enhanced contrast (Level AAA) for the best possible accessibility. If you’re not sure how much contrast is needed, this free tool for comparing background and foreground colors is a good place to start.
Clear copy: Attention copywriters: Please prioritize clear heading structures, easy-to-read text, and consistent navigation. These techniques help screen reader users or those with visual impairments and, honestly, they enhance the overall browsing experience for everyone. Google’s algorithms also appreciate clear headings and layout. On the back end, using semantic HTML tags (e.g.,
<header>,<section>,<nav>,<footer>) helps screen readers and search engines better understand your content’s hierarchy. Marking up content with structured data (e.g., Schema.org) can also enhance search visibility (via rich snippets) and benefit accessibility tools by interpreting page elements more meaningfully.Responsible use of animations: The “prefers-reduced-motion” CSS media feature helps websites detect and adapt to devices that are set to minimize non-essential motion. Reduced motion settings can be essential for individuals with migraines, neurodivergence, or vestibular motion disorders (a sensory imbalance stemming from the inner ear). For this population, animations such as scaling or the panning of large objects can trigger symptoms such as motion sickness, dizziness, or cognitive overload. The “prefers-reduced-motion” feature is a great example of accommodating users that require a different experience, while still bringing the original vision to life. As one example, check out our CGLife.com home page. With default settings, you’ll be greeted with a custom animation above the fold (“is it human anatomy or a Martian landscape? You be the judge!”). For folks who have the “prefers-reduced-motion” setting enabled on their device, this animation will appear as a static image. Still intriguing, but not symptom-inducing.
Alt text for images: Providing descriptive alternative text for images helps people using screen readers understand visual content and relay that information to the user. ‘Alt text’ also helps search engines comprehend image content, reinforcing page quality rankings and allowing the images to appear independently in search results (i.e., via Google Images). It’s important to balance both audiences, ensuring the images can be “read” and understood by both humans and search engine bots.
Design, develop, and verify
While developers should strive to implement accessibility best practices during the initial development process, there are inevitably areas for improvement once the site goes live. This is why tests and quality control are so important. Ideally, accessibility audits take place after every significant update or at least once a year to ensure the website is evolving with new technology and continuing to improve.
At CG Life, we check for accessibility aspects such as keyboard navigation. This ensures users can navigate the site entirely via keyboard. This benefits many individuals—particularly those who rely on assistive technologies, but also users who simply prefer to navigate via keyboard—and demonstrates a well-structured and searchable site. We also run tests for code correctness as part of our quality review routine. It may be invisible to most users, but it’s important for screen readers and other assistive software.
Prioritizing accessibility goals, together
Compliance and accessibility are not just legal requirements or niceties; they can significantly enhance SEO results and user experience with a clear site architecture and overall page quality. Rather than seeing these objectives as separate or competing, we view them as complementary approaches that converge on a common goal: delivering an inclusive, high-quality experience that users (from all walks of life) and search engines can appreciate. It’s an ongoing challenge and few sites are perfect (visit an exceptional website here), but in partnership with our clients, we hope to continue to raise the bar for accessible website builds.
