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Maglr and Web Accessibility

October 18, 2022
Maglr and Web Accessibility

Maglr is the platform to turn static content into a more visual and interactive form. But when it comes to digital accessibility, it is becoming increasingly important for our users to be able to make their Maglr publications available to everyone. In this article, we tell you how we made it possible to follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) on our platform.

What is Web Accessibility?

The power of the web is that it is universally used. Therefore, web content should be accessible to everyone. The requirements for digital accessibility stem from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. They argue that everyone should be able to perceive, understand, use and navigate digital content. With Maglr you can create interactive content without technical limitations. But to be able to follow these guidelines, Maglr publications also have to be technically correct.

People with disabilities can use a screen reader or other assistive technology. This technology converts web content, for example, into speech or Braille. Therefore the structure of a Maglr page must be laid out in a logical order in the code in the back-end. This is also important for visitors navigating a page using keyboard commands. 

Maglr and Web Accessibility

In many countries, public-faced organisations are already required to comply with the web accessibility standards and guidelines. Our goal is to create a platform where our users can easily create accessible content. And we are already well on our way. First, the navigation environment of all Maglr publications are automatically set up to comply with the WCAG guidelines. Keyboard and assistive technology users can easily use the side menu and navigate through all publication pages.  

But mostly, it is important that our users can create accessible digital content with our editors. Without having to think much about the code and technical side. A big milestone for us is that this is now made possible in our Pro editor. We have added the Accessibility Checker as a module to optimise content for the web standards. This module allows users to add additional descriptive information to elements and structure them for assistive technology. The next step in this process is to also add this module to an improved version of our Block editor. 

Accessibility Checker

An important feature of the Pro editor is the freedom of design, which is reflected in the free positioning of elements on a page. Using the Accessibility Checker module, users can optimise their page for assistive technology:

  • Reposition elements so that the reading order is correct;
  • Provide elements with alternative text descriptions so they can be read aloud;
  • Disable elements that are decorative and have no informational value;
  • Add subtitles to videos;
  • Assign headings to titles;
  • Add focus to and specify the reading order for buttons that open multiple layers or popups.

The use of this module not only improves the accessibility and usability of a publication but also helps search engines to better understand the content of a page. For example, search engines use headings to understand a page's structure and how they are interconnected to know what a page is about for search results. 

Now the actions mentioned above are just a few steps towards an accessibility publication. Open our helpful publication below to view all the steps you can take as a designer (text format, animations, color, contrast) to apply accessibility guidelines within the content experiences you create in Maglr.

https://interactives.maglr.com/accessibility/accessibility-cover

In the Maglr Help Center, you will find more extensive articles on how to optimise your Maglr publications to follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

 

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