Designing Web Experiences for Assistive Technologies

Designing for the web means ensuring everyone can access your content, regardless of how they navigate. To build truly inclusive sites, developers and designers must understand the diverse tools users rely on to browse the digital world. This text-only course guides you through the foundational concepts of assistive technologies. You will transition from simply knowing about accessibility to actively understanding how screen readers, switch controls, and magnification software interact with your code. What you will learn: Understand how screen readers, refreshable braille displays, and alternative input devices process web content; Apply semantic HTML and ARIA attributes correctly to convey structure and state to assistive software; Identify common accessibility barriers in navigation, forms, and dynamic content; Practice manual testing techniques using keyboard-only navigation and built-in screen readers; Design responsive, high-contrast layouts that support screen magnification and text-scaling; Configure web elements to support modern accessibility standards and zero-exclusion user journeys. The course starts with essential terminology and the social model of disability before moving into practical code structures and testing workflows. You will read clear explanations, analyze accessible code snippets, and learn how to audit your projects step-by-step. This course is ideal for beginner web developers, UI/UX designers, and product creators with basic HTML knowledge who want to build a more inclusive web. No prior accessibility experience is required. Start reading today to build digital experiences that welcome every user.