Accessible Visual Overlays
Deliver engaging messages, promotions, and sign-up forms while ensuring your content can be used by as many visitors as possible. Visual Overlays support accessibility best practices to that people using keyboards, screen readers, or other assistive technologies can interact with your overlays confidently and successfully.
Create overlay experiences that are inclusive, clear, and easy to navigate with built-in accessible design patterns and structured content.
Why Accessibility Matters
Accessible overlays ensure that everyone can interact with your website, including visitors who:
- Use screen readers
- Navigate using a keyboard instead of a mouse
- Have low vision or color contrast needs
- Use assistive technologies to browse the web
Supporting accessibility makes your website more inclusive and helps align with widely recognized standards such as WCAG 2.1 Level AA.
Accessibility Features in Sailthru Visual Overlays
Visual Overlays include built-in features that help ensure content is understandable, navigable, and usable for all visitors.
Clear Popup Structure
Visual Overlays are structured so assistive technologies can recognize when a popup dialog appears. Screen readers can identify the overlay, understand its purpose, and announce key information such as the overlay title and description.
Benefit:
Visitors immediately understand the context and purpose of the popup.
Keyboard-Friendly Navigation
Visitors who navigate using a keyboard can move through overlay elements in a logical order. Interactive elements such as buttons, links, and form fields are reachable and clearly identifiable.
Focus indicators show users where they are within the overlay as they move between elements.
Benefit:
Keyboard users can navigate overlays smoothly and interact with content without confusion.
Accessible Forms
Forms created within Visual Overlays support clear structure and labeling so users understand what information is required.
Form enhancements support:
- Identification of required fields
- Clear error messaging when input needs correction
- Logical grouping of related form fields
- Confirmation messages when a form submission is successful
Benefit:
Visitors can complete forms more easily and understand what action is required at each step.
Structured Content for Assistive Technologies
Overlay elements such as headings, lists, navigation links, and grouped content areas follow semantic HTML structure. This helps screen readers describe the layout and organization of content accurately.
Benefit:
Users who rely on assistive technologies can better understand and navigate overlay content.
Accessible Images and Media
Images in overlays can include descriptive alternative text so screen readers can communicate what the image represents. Decorative images can be ignored by assistive technologies to avoid unnecessary announcements.
Video content can also include labels and descriptions that help users understand what the video contains.
Benefit:
Visitors who cannot see visual content still receive meaningful information about it.
Accessible Tables and Lists
Structured content elements such as lists and tables are organized so assistive technologies can interpret them correctly.
Examples include:
- Tables with defined headers and descriptions
- Lists that clearly identify how many items they contain
- Groups of icons or links organized logically
Benefit:
Visitors can understand structured information more easily when it is read aloud by assistive technology.
Clear Feedback for User Actions
When visitors interact with an overlay, they receive clear feedback about what happened. For example, confirmation messages can be announced after form submissions so users know their action was successful.
Benefit:
Users receive immediate confirmation that their action was completed.
Best Practices for Accessible Overlay Content
While Sailthru provides accessible overlay functionality, accessibility also depends on the content you create.
We recommend that you:
- Use clear, descriptive overlay titles
- Add meaningful alt text to images
- Ensure text color has sufficient contrast with backgrounds
- Use clear labels for buttons and links
There are many free tools available online that can help check color contrast and other accessibility guidelines.
