Accessibility Features

In 2023, we’ve spent quite some effort on making the platform more accessible. Although there is still work to be done, we’re proud of having the following features in place:

Hierarchy

For keyboard navigation to work correctly, the visual hierarchy of the page must be reflected in the code. When you open any page on the platform and use your keys to navigate, you will start at the top and go through the elements from top to bottom.

Keyboard access

With complex code, keyboard keys sometimes jump over certain elements. We’ve located these glitches and made sure that all of the content on the page, all menus, pop-ups, etc., are accessible with a keyboard. Furthermore, we’ve used colors and borders to visually indicate where you are on the page when you’re using a keyboard to navigate.

Labels

Many of the buttons on the platform use text like “Create”, but some only show an icon. Think for example of the close button at the top right of a pop-up. All of these buttons now have labels visible for screen readers.

Alternative text for images

When you’re uploading an image to the platform, whether this is a banner of a page or an illustration in a post, you’re asked for a description in text. This text is used as the alternative text that is picked up by screen readers.

Skip links

Alkemio holds various menus, lists/collections, and of course all the different blocks with content. Using a keyboard to navigate can be quite tiring and inefficient when you have to click through all of this content to get to a specific point on a page. Therefore we introduced Skip links on the platform. These Skip links are commonly used to allow the user to jump over a menu, but we integrated them in a way that users can also skip from one block to the next.

Curious to see these features in practice?

Try using the tab, arrows, and return key when you’re on the platform. It might take a little bit of practice if you’re not used to it, but we’re sure you’ll get the hang of it! Interested in using a screen reader? For Windows, we recommend NVDA (free).

Up next?

Exiting all dialogs with ESC key Accessibility feedback button Header update …and if you think we’re missing something more, please get in touch!