About | Make-It-Accessible

Welcome to Make-It-Accessible.

“The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.”
—Tim Berners-Lee

Hello! Make-It-Accessible is a small yet growing web accessibility resource made by a small yet growing design studio on a small yet very growing planet.

What connects most of us on this planet is the web, which is an astounding place, connecting 2 billion websites with 5.3 million internet users. We admire the web and everything it can do.

But we also see the web as a confounding place, a digital carnival that is not built for everyone, including people with disabilities. In a 2021 study, researchers found that 83.9% of homepages had low contrast text, making reading content difficult for those with a visual disability. The same study showed that homepages are becoming increasingly complex over the past few years, which means that content is difficult to find or use.

This disconnect — between the promise of the web and the real accessibility challenges it presents — can be fixed. When websites and digital tools are properly designed and built, everyone can access them — and everyone benefits.

While there are a lot of websites out there about web accessibility, most of them are for coders and developers. Make-It-Accessible is one of the very few created for agencies, studios, web designers and copywriters, as well as developers. It is not the most comprehensive resource nor is it definitive. Make-It-Accessible is a compilation of ideas, reflecting what we’ve learned so far in our travels as a studio. We hope it might inspire and inform folks, especially designers who are interested in making the world and the web a better place.

If you have any questions or feedback about this site or about web accessibility, please contact us. We wish you well on your web accessibility journey.

An accessible web benefits everyone and is entirely within reach.

A small but mighty team

Among our many goals for Make-It-Accessible is to demonstrate to designers, UX professionals, writers, and developers that accessible design can also be beautiful, informative and engaging. We hope that this resource will be useful for many and will help advance web access everywhere. This site was made by the following people at Manoverboard:

Andrew Boardman: concept, creative direction and editor
Nicky Wolfe: designer, lead developer and contributing development writer
Karen Niedzwiecki: project management and contributing writer
Chloe Ross-Rogerson: project management, contributing writer and editor
Dan Lamb: illustration
Jenica Woitowicz: developer, QA and social media
Deborah Zanke: lead writer

In early 2023, Manoverboard merged with fellow B Corporation Mangrove, which currently manages and maintains this website.

Make-It-Accessible is an open project. We will continue to add contributors to this page.

If you have feedback about this website or would like to contribute in some way, please reach out to us.

We are also indebted to so many others for their contributions.

Acknowledgements

We are especially grateful to the Manitoba Government which provided financial assistance for this project through the Manitoba Accessibility Fund. We are very appreciative of their support. The Accessibility for Manitobans Act is an important piece of legislation and its Accessibility Standard for Information and Communication will go a long way towards bringing down barriers for those with disabilities. On May 1, 2024, it will become mandatory for public sector organizations, libraries and educational institutions in Manitoba, Canada, to comply with the standard. Find out more in our post The Accessibility for Manitobans Act: Is your website compliant?

In addition to those who contributed their time, funds and energy to making this website, we recognize that it would not exist but for so many tools, platforms, typefaces, systems and unique contributions of others. Some of those are indicated at right.

Typeface: Universal Sans, a beautiful and highly legible variable font by foundry Family Type

Content Management Systems (CMS): WordPress, powering over 30% of the web

Design tool: Figma, a collaborative and modern interface platform that works

Hosting: Dreamhost, a commercial hosting platform hosting 1.5 million sites

Writing tool: Google Docs, a collaborative online writing platform