![branko-stancevic-GI1hwOGqGtE-unsplash.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/gibic/23t793YTFPJFMesZhPKkCiHyL7oMEuYXkPbewFBdo71hiK9kmNXWH2zVfgtUL6zGUUBfm.jpg) Hello STEMGeeks community, this is my first post on this community. I'm a frontend developer for more than 10 years experiences, so I would like to share some frontend thingies in this community. Since this is my first post here, I think I will share about one of the fundamental website building aspect, fundamental but often being overlooked. I'm going to talk about Web Accessibility. Web accessibility, or a11y for short ('11' represents the 11 letters between 'a' and 'y'), is all about making web applications usable for everyone. This means that all users, regardless of their abilities or impairments, can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the web. In this blog post, we will cover why web accessibility matters, the key principles of accessibility, practical steps you can take to improve accessibility on your website, and tools and resources to help you along the way. By the end of this guide, I hope we will have a solid foundation to start making our web projects more inclusive and user-friendly for everyone. ## Why Web Accessibility Matters > When websites and web tools are properly designed and coded, people with disabilities can use them. However, currently many sites and tools are developed with accessibility barriers that make them difficult or impossible for some people to use. ~ ([www.w3.org - Introduction to Web Accessibility](https://www.w3.org/WAI/fundamentals/accessibility-intro/)) When we talk about web accessibility, it generally means that all people, including those with disabilities, can use your website. Disabilities can be visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, language, learning, and neurological. Making your site accessible is a necessity because we can not assume who will access our web. Even if the website is landing on a certain specific niche, we should imagine that our web will serve a wide range of users. In short, a website should be inclusive. To promote this inclusivity, some countries have regulations to make web accessibility a requirement, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in the United States and the Web Accessibility Directive in the European Union. I don't really know if non-compliance to these acts can lead to legal consequences or fines, but one thing for sure: it definitely will be a good idea to comply. Because accessible websites often rank better in search engines. Search engines love best practices for web standards. Proper use of HTML tags, alt text for images, and structured content definitely can improve your site's SEO performance. As a web developer, I tend to think that building a website is not for SEO though. We build websites for people to use. Meaning we built it for humans, not machines. And accessible websites provide better user experience for everyone who accesses it. Because if we talk about web accessibility, we don't talk about assistive technology, but more on features like clear navigation, readable text, and intuitive forms. Since it will benefit all users, leading to higher user satisfaction and engagement. That would be the end goal for a good website. ## Key Principles of Web Accessibility There are some key principles we can follow to achieve good web accessibility. 1. Perceivable Information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive. 2. Operable User interface components and navigation must be operable. 3. Understandable Information and the operation of the user interface must be understandable. 4. Robust Content must be robust enough to be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies. By following these principles, we will have a good foundation on building a better website. But enough theory, let's try to implement these principles into practice. ## Practical Implementation of Web Accessibility #### 1. Semantic HTML HTML is a beautiful markup language. It offers various tags that will create web elements that have inherent meaning. So it is necessary to use proper HTML tags to convey the meaning and structure of your content. Implementing semantic HTML helps screen readers and other assistive technologies understand the layout and purpose of different elements. Semantic HTML includes using tags like `

`, `

`, and `

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