You've got your list of accessibility issues. Now you need to pick the next big thing to work on. But staring at six problems at once doesn't tell you where to start. So here's a dead simple way to prioritise them.
Compare them one at a time and slot each new one into the right place. By the time you've worked through the list, you've got a prioritised list with your biggest fire on top.
Let's say these are your issues:
- Images on the product pages have no
alttext - Low colour contrast on the main navigation links
- The checkout form shows no error messages when you get something wrong
- Videos on the blog have no captions
- The mobile menu can't be opened with a keyboard
- The cookie banner has no visible focus ring
Start with the first two issues.
Alternative text on product pages versus low contrast on the nav. The nav is on every single page, which everyone sees. Nav contrast wins.
So now you've prioritised: nav contrast then alt text.
Bring in issue three. The checkout form has no error messages. Compare it against the top item on your so-far-prioritised list. A broken checkout blocks people from buying anything. I think that beats nav contrast. So it goes straight to the top.
Prioritised so far: checkout errors, then nav contrast, then alt text.
Bring in issue four. Video captions. Compare against checkout errors. Not even close, checkout wins. Compare against nav contrast. The nav affects every user on every page, captions affect blog visitors. Nav contrast wins. Compare against alt text. Product page alt text affects more users than optional blog videos. Alternative text wins. Captions slot in at the bottom.
Prioritised so far: checkout errors, then nav contrast, then alt text, then video captions last.
Bring in issue five. The mobile menu can't be opened with a keyboard. Compare against checkout errors. Checkout still wins. Compare against nav contrast. Nav contrast affects more people across more devices. Nav contrast wins. Compare against alt text. A broken mobile menu means keyboard users can't navigate at all on mobile. That's worse than missing alt text. It slots in here.
Prioritised so far: checkout errors, nav contrast, mobile menu keyboard, alt text, video captions.
Bring in the last issue. The cookie banner has no focus ring. It's one element, hit once. It works its way down to the bottom.
And your final prioritised list looks like this:
- Checkout form has no error messages
- Low colour contrast on the nav
- Mobile menu can't be opened with a keyboard
- Product page images have no
alttext - Blog videos have no captions
- Cookie banner has no focus ring
Start at the top, keep one item in progress at a time and work your way down.
That's obviously a simplistic example, but it's good enough to get you started.