Pundits, News Outlets And Everyday People Have Described The 2020 Presidential Election As The Most Important Election Of Our Lifetime, Yet, 26 Percent Of The United States’ Population Can’t Access Key Content On The Candidates’ Websites.
Ablr, a leader in accessibility strategy and disability inclusion, concluded after conducting usability audits of the websites of President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden and Vice Presidential nominee Kamala Harris. Ablr audited the homepages of each website and found a total of 44 violations: 17 for Vice President Pence, 13 for Vice President Biden, 10 for Senator Harris and 4 for President Trump.
Key Findings
Critical
- Content available only by using a mouse, not a keyboard. Some people cannot use a mouse due to vision or motor disabilities. Therefore, content that can be operated with a mouse, must also be made operable with a keyboard. When people who are disabled use a keyboard, they take advantage of assistive technologies such as speech input software, on-screen keyboards, scanning software and more. These technologies cannot be used with a mouse only.
- No Alternate Text/Alt text. The purpose of alt text is to describe images to people who are unable to see them. It is critically important that all website visitors understand what is portrayed in images on webpages
Serious
- Lack of contrast between links and surrounding text. Color alone is not a suitable way to distinguish a link from the surrounding text. This problem causes people who are color blind or with low vision to miss links. A better solution than using color alone is to add an underline.
- Links within a webpage need to have discernable text. For example, a button that asks users to click for more information must have text describing its use. Otherwise screen readers will not be able to determine that the element’s purpose is.
Moderate
- Headers don’t describe content. Encountering a “wall of text” that’s not broken down into logical sections can be daunting. This is especially true for people who have reading or other cognitive disabilities and for those using a screen reader. Dividing content into logical sections with descriptive headers and subheadings creates a visual and semantic organization of content and users can understand the relationships between different parts of the copy more easily.
Download
To view the raw data uncovered in the accessibility audit, download the accessible document below.