Screenshot of the Pulse front page blured with an accessibility sign superimposed

Making Internet Data and Insights More Accessible to Everyone

Photo of Garrett Coakley

Garrett Coakley

Senior Frontend Developer, Internet Society

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"The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone, regardless of disability, is an essential aspect." - Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web

At least one billion people – 15% of the world’s population – have a recognized disability.

We've recently completed a technology migration of the Pulse website, and whilst the primary aim of the move was to better prepare Pulse for future development, it was also a good opportunity to improve the site's accessibility and performance.

As we migrated each section of the site, we rebuilt the front-end templates with semantic HTML. We then tested each section using a number of tools, both automated and manual, including AXE, WAVE, and VoiceOver, to ensure compliance with WCAG 2.2 Level AA guidelines.

Additionally, moving to an HTML-first front-end with just the lightest dusting of JavaScript enabled us to make huge improvements in the site's performance. Something which we think goes hand in hand with accessibility, especially given that large sections of our audience may be located in areas with limited bandwidth or network resilience.

Some highlights of those improvements (averaged across the site):

  • 35% fewer HTTP requests per page
  • 62% faster to render
  • 73% smaller carbon footprint

Although this is a good first step, there's still work to do. Our next round of accessibility and performance improvements will focus on two key areas:

  • Investigating a new mapping and data visualization architecture to allow us to add richer descriptions and context to our maps and diagrams, as well as alternate methods of accessing the data they contain.
  • Assessing and enhancing image processing across the site, using the latest improvements in the HTML specification and browser capabilities for better performance in low-bandwidth situations.

The end result will be a service that makes our data and insights more accessible to everyone. If you have feedback, we’d love to hear it at [email protected].

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