About Reservatic web accessibility at TechMeetup #21

The Reservatic system is our 2016 startup project for booking appointments in all sectors of human services. With the advent of the pandemic, Reservatic moved on again, becoming part of the Smart Quarantine 2.0 project, which entailed new requirements for the system according to the Ministry of Health. The key challenge was therefore to make the site accessible to visitors with severe disabilities so that they would be able to use the site effectively and achieve their goals despite their disabilities (using the resources available to them).

Web Accessibility

The accessibility of a website is determined by verifying whether the tested website complies with the rules defined in the methodological guideline to Decree No. 64/2008 Coll. or in the WCAG 2.0 standard (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines). If the rules are complied with, the website can be declared accessible not only for people with disabilities.

Reservatic's biggest accessibility challenge was "blind friendly" graphic design and content, while maintaining an attractive and modern design. The text needed to be easy to read on all devices, i.e. choose appropriate fonts and font sizes, ideally 2 to 3 fonts for the entire site. Other factors such as good contrast between the background text and font colour must be taken into account. Due to the contrast mentioned above, it is also recommended that fewer photographs are taken and replaced by illustrations.

Testing was carried out using the Colour Contrast Checker and Screen Reader tools available in Google Chrome Extensions.

Sustainable Design

The talk focused on sustainable design, which is considered a trend for 2022. It represents a return to roots, natural elements, recycled materials, which is reflected in the web world to load pages faster and put less strain on the environment. It is thus recommended to choose fewer photos and fonts (1 type, 2 cuts). At www.websitecarbon.com you can calculate how much carbon dioxide is produced each time you visit a given website.

TechMeetup Ostrava is a community that creates a space for front-enders, PHPers, Rubyers, JVists, .Netists, QA, IR, UX designers, just anyone who has anything to do with IT to meet together. 

In addition to our Martin, there were three other speakers at the 21st meeting with the following topics:

• Trends in Web Design 2022
• From client to designer to developer and back again
• How to simplify your work with a headless CMS

Could you make it to the Impact Hub or catch the live stream yesterday? No problem, you can watch all the talks at https://youtu.be/xtQr1F3Ft3s.