8 tips to make your Angular application more Accessible

Keyboard accessibility built-in

Keyboard accessibility is always built-in to native HTML elements. Select elements are always accessible by keyboard, and buttons are always focusable and clickable through the keyboard. If you’re utilizing custom controls instead of standard HTML components, you’ll have to make them yourself accessible.

Headings, paragraphs, lists, and other elements of good content structure

The first crucial point to remember is that most screen readers employ content structure to navigate. For example, most screen readers create an extra menu from the page’s headers, allowing users to go to any heading on the page.
No table layouts — Tables were made to display structured data. Tables, on the other hand, are now used for layout on a large number of pages. This method may result in improper conduct and uncontrolled screen reader readings. By the way, several current screen readers are aware of the distinction between data and layout tables. However, we cannot rely on them entirely at this time.

Natural content flow

HTML specifies how components on a web page are displayed and arranged. It decides which element comes first, which element is stacked on top of another, and so on. The HTML content flow refers to the principles that govern the flow of material.

The content flow from left to right and top to bottom appears to be the most common content flow on the internet. However, different cultures have varied content flow patterns, such as the right to left. It’s also critical that the HTML content flow feels natural to the user. It’s also crucial that the tab order on the website seems natural. However, incorrect use of flex boxes, floats, tab index, and other HTML elements may quickly ruin the user experience and natural tab order.

Reverse flex container — will break with tab order since the elements’ positions will differ from those in the DOM. Floats – CSS floats have a similar problem as reversed flex containers. It retains the element in the DOM but transfers it to a different location on the screen.

Provide alternative content

Please make sure you have a text alternative for your non-text material on the web page when you’re producing non-text content.

If your website includes photos, charts, or maps, make sure that text replacements are available for those who use screen readers. Because screen readers cannot see pictures, charts, or maps, you must supply a text that includes all of the information from your infographics. On pictures, the alt=”Description” attribute is commonly used for this purpose. Subtitles should be available for websites containing video content. It’s as simple as that; those who don’t have access to speakers should be able to understand your information. Subtitles appear on the screen at this point.

Empty alt for decorative images <img src=”…” alt=””>. While we said that you should include alternative material in your graphical content, the alt property does not have to be used on every picture. Screen readers will attempt to announce decorative pictures if they are marked with the alt property, but this is not what we want from decorative images.

Color Contrast

Almost every user of your program is affected by this aspect of a11y.
Color may also be used to communicate information. It’d be ideal if you could make these apps as visible as possible.

There should be adequate contrast between the text color and the background color. The luminosity contrast ratio refers to the text that appears on buttons, icons, and pictures. When designing online shopping sites, colors should be specified clearly. To make product selection easier for everyone, color swatches should be tagged with the color’s name. Color contrast may be checked with tools like ebAIM’s contrast checker.

Use the Material theming guides and inspection tools to ensure that you meet the Web Content Accessibility Criteria (WCAG 2.0) color contrast ratio requirements. Here are some pointers:

If your color is above the top line (A Conformance level), you have a basic degree of accessibility that is insufficient for many individuals.

It’s fine if you color inside the lines (AA Conformance level). Your website’s compliance level should be at least AA, according to the World Wide Web Consortium (WCAG).

If your color is below the bottom line, you’re doing well (AAA Conformance level). At the AAA (highest) level of accessibility, however, not all accessibility requirements may be satisfied.

Make use of ARIA attributes.

Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) is an acronym for Accessible Rich Internet Applications. It’s a collection of HTML attributes that describe how to make online content and apps accessible to individuals who use assistive technology. ARIA may be used to fill in the gaps when native HTML is unable to solve accessibility issues. The role, states, and properties are the three main components.

A “role” is a specific sort of user interface element, such as a scrollbar, menu item, or button.The words “states” and “properties” are used to describe the present state of an entity (aria-checked, aria-labeled by, aria-active descendant). If you inspect the code with your browser, you can see what attributes your browser adds automatically.

Add the @angular/CDK/a11y Power

The Angular CDK a11y package helps you speed up accessibility development by providing implementations for popular patterns. Here are a few of its features.

ListKeyManager — makes creating keyboard-navigable lists a breeze.
A focus trap – A technique for trapping a user’s attention inside an element. They’re commonly utilized in modal dialogues to retain the user’s attention within the dialogue and prevent them from leaving.

The live announcer is the most convenient approach to announce things for screen readerusers. Because screen readers are unable to alert users of notifications by default, this is especially important for apps with notifications and users who use screen readers.

Focus monitor – keeps track of the focus on a certain element and its offspring. Listening for focus and blur events on an element is similar. Even so, everything is in one place, with a straightforward API that also tells you how an element was focused — by mouse, keyboard, touch, or programmatically.

Styling utilities – a suite of SCSS tools for creating accessible components. It offers capabilities such as the ability to conceal items from the screen while making them available to screen readers, as well as aiding you in targeting customers with high contrast color schemes.

Accessibility Testing Tools

In the current state of the web, manual accessibility testing is necessary. Begin by learning to navigate using your computer’s built-in screen reader.

We may also search for particular problems like missing alt text, labels, and color contrast using automated tools like Lighthouse, axe, and linting.

Describe Unique page titles

A distinct and succinct title should be given to each page. It enables users of a11y services to understand the contents and intent of a web page right away. For Angular apps with a consistent title for each page, the page title is crucial.

You may use the Title service to change the title of a page using a simple API.

For screen reader users, a unique title for each page is essential because it is the first thing the screen reader announces. Because Angular applications are single-page applications, this is a significant problem. By default, each page has a single common title.

It may, however, be solved by utilizing the Angular Title service. It has a basic API that allows you to set a page title.