Don’t Forget The Details
One of the most important details any school web design fails to take into account is accessibility. This can also take place when you are developing a mobile-friendly school website design.
People are not the same as they have minor defects like colour blindness, hearing loss, and other disabilities that make it hard for them to access your school’s website.
While you may not be able to please or meet everyone’s needs you can still make your website accessible to a large majority of your target audience. When your school website design is inclusive for all parents you can avoid any legal issues that may have arisen if you did not do this work.
Designing School Websites for Diversity: Crafting an Inclusive School Web Experience
When you are going to make this attempt to have an inclusive school website design, you need someone with experience in web design to make the end result perfect.
Also, you need to know who is attending your school and what their parents are like, as well as know your target audience. Crafting an inclusive website means addressing all the needs found in your school’s parents, their children, and potential parents and students.
The reasons you want an all-inclusive website are:
– it broadens your audience
– it creates a better user experience for all who visit the website
– it helps build a cohesive and equal community
– avoids legal issues
Once you understand the reasons for building an all-inclusive school website design, you need to make sure it meets the following criteria- perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.
An all-inclusive website design is a lot of work which is why you need someone with experience in web design to help you build it.
Ensuring Every Parent Feels Welcome via School Website
The steps to accomplish this goal would be similar to the ones you need to take when parents make a physical visit to your institution. The website is just an extension of the school and should incorporate key welcoming principles so all parents will feel comfortable exploring the website.
The first step to doing this is to understand that your school’s website design is your first impression. How it looks will tell every parent what you think of them. Making it an attractive landing page helps make the parents feel welcome.
The second step would be to clearly communicate and communicate well. If this task means having web pages translated into several languages, then so be it. You want every parent to feel welcome and meeting them in their native tongue is one way to accomplish that objective.
Don’t forget to ask parents what would make them feel comfortable when they visit the school’s website. This is vital information that cannot be overlooked.
Creating an Inclusive Online Hub for School Parents
One of the first steps in this process is to make sure to place a meaningful welcome on one or more pages. There can be a general welcome from the school and more specific welcoming messages from individual teachers to parents of their students.
Don’t forget to add check-ins as those help parents feel more comfortable. Then, design your web pages in such a way that parents can see them and their children represented in the culture of the school.
Be sensitive to ethnicity, cultures, and religions, and have that sensitivity appear in the language on signs, posters on the wall, and even key books in your school’s library. All of this can be displayed on different web pages on your school’s website.
Finally, create activities for the whole family to be involved. Of course, these have to be flexible and designed to meet modern parental schedules. You can get ideas through brainstorming as well as learning your students’ parents’ schedules.
Making user-friendly School Web Design
This is a vital element in any school website design as well as its mobile-friendly school website design. Being user-friendly encourages engagement and makes all parents feel welcome.
However, this is not an easy task as many parents do not have the same abilities and cannot access your school’s website in the same way. Here are some key disabilities that your web designer needs to consider and incorporate into his or her website design:
– visual
– auditory
– physical
– speech
– cognitive
Unfortunately, it may not be possible to meet all of these disabilities. Trying to please everyone is not an easy task and often you end up pleasing no one.
Strategies for an Inclusive School Web Experience
The following should provide you with the key ideas you can implement:
– semantic HTML elements
– have your site keyboard-friendly
– ensure good colour contrast and make it sufficient for all people
– provide media alternatives
– make use of captions and ALT texts
– include alternative text and content
– enable the keyboard navigation feature
– make sure to include clear instructions and labels
– allow your parents to make customized changes
– watch out for content that triggers seizures
– be culturally sensitive
– then test your website using real people
There are accessibility tools that can help you analyze how inclusive your school website design is. Don’t forget to use assistive technology to gauge the upgrade to your website.
Also, do not be afraid to make any changes that these testers and tools suggest.
Some Additional Words
When you are ready to make your school website design all-inclusive, contact our company. We pride ourselves on helping schools be more inclusive and broaden their audience through their website design.
We have the technicians and the experts who will help you construct a great inclusive website that should be welcoming to all parents. Contact us today to get started on this upgrade and broaden your school’s audience.
It is well worth the time and effort to accomplish this goal.
