Tips on how to design your website for the Visually Impaired

Surveys have shown that nearly 53.2 million Americans of the age of 45 and above suffer from some kind of visual impairment that could range from mild to severe. However, in spite of having visual impairments, many people still take to the Internet every day.

The Internet is jammed with all sorts of articles that talk about designing websites for blind users. But what about those who are not blind but visually impaired? Most people suffering from visual impairment do not need any kind of screen reading software. However, in spite of this, the net can still be a very difficult place to navigate through when you can’t see properly.

Here are a few tips on how to design your site so that it is more accessible to the visually impaired:

1. Enlarged Text: Most of the time, enlarging the text is what a visually impaired person really needs. You could put in an option for an alternate stylesheet with larger font sizes and ensure that your text does not get broken when you enable text-only zoom in the browser. Most visually impaired people tend to zoom in on the text without really changing the scale of the site’s layout.


2. Contrast: There are plenty of eye diseases like Glaucoma, Retinitis Pigmentosa, Retinopathy and cataracts that lead to a decrease in the contrast sensitivity, which is essentially the person’s ability to distinguish between similar color shades and similar levels of brightness. So using a layout that is detail-oriented and that utilizes subtle gradients can be a headache for users who struggle with color sensitivity. So, make a second version of your website with more contrast between the elements. Use bold text to add to readability on low contrast items and stay away from thin fonts.


3. Use Keyboard Shortcuts to make Navigation Easy: Keyboard shortcuts can make it useful for people with screen readers and can make site navigation easier for the visually impaired.