Who it helps
Website accessibility for older adults
Recommended tools
Older adults
The tools that help most. Visitors turn each one on from the panel.
- Text size
- Line height
- Smart contrast
- Big cursor
The barriers
What makes websites hard to use?
Common problems for older adults visitors, and the reason the tools below exist.
Small, low-contrast text
With age, eyes often become less sensitive to contrast and less able to focus up close. Small gray text on a white background can become very hard to read.
Small targets and fiddly controls
Reduced dexterity, tremors or arthritis make small links, tiny checkboxes and drag gestures hard to use with a mouse or touch screen.
Complex or changing navigation
Hidden menus, unlabeled icons and multi-step tasks put a load on short-term memory. Redesigns that move things around mean learning the site all over again.
Audio that is hard to follow
High-pitched sounds and speech over background music can be hard to hear, and videos without captions leave people out.
The tools
Which tools help?
Each one is a tile in the panel. Visitors switch it on, and it stays on as they browse.
- Text sizeMakes text 120%, 140% or 160% larger, for comfortable reading without zooming the whole page.120%140%160%
- Line heightAdds space between lines, which makes long passages easier to follow.1.5×1.8×2×
- Smart contrastTurns only hard-to-read text black or white, so faint gray text becomes readable while the page keeps its design.On
- Big cursorMakes the mouse pointer much larger and easier to find on a big screen.On
- Read aloudReads text out loud when it's clicked, using the voices built into the visitor's browser, which helps when eyes are tired.On
- Text magnifierShows the text under the pointer in a large box, which is handy for small print like prices and footnotes.On
For site owners
What should you fix in your own code?
The tools help visitors adapt your pages, but they can't fix how your site is built. These changes make the biggest difference.
- Use a comfortable body text size, and make sure text can be enlarged to 200% without breaking the layout (WCAG 1.4.4).
- Give text at least 4.5:1 contrast against its background. Check your colors with our free contrast checker.
- Make buttons and links large, at least 24 by 24 CSS pixels, with space between them (WCAG 2.5.8).
- Label icons with words, keep the main menu visible, and keep navigation in the same place on every page.
- Caption your videos, and keep background music out from under speech.
- Give people enough time, and don't make them remember information from one step to the next.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
About older adults, the tools and how they work.
Still have a question?
We read every message and reply as soon as we can.
support@example.comContact usWhy should websites be designed for older adults?
Because there are more of them every year. The World Health Organization says that by 2030, 1 in 6 people in the world will be aged 60 or over, and that by 2050 there will be 2.1 billion people in that age group.
Which profile should older visitors use?
The Low vision profile is a good start. It turns on larger text, more line spacing, Smart contrast, Highlight links and a Big cursor in one click, and visitors can add Read aloud or other tools as they like.
Does WCAG cover the needs of older users?
Mostly, yes. The W3C says its existing standards address most of the needs of older users, because those needs overlap with the needs of people with disabilities.
Other visitor needs
Give every visitor the tools they need
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