It is essential for individuals working in the online industry to prioritize making websites accessible and user-friendly for all users. Although developers and designers are typically responsible for ensuring that websites are accessible, there is significant overlap with the search engine optimization tasks we perform to make websites easy for search engines to comprehend.
But before we understand why you need an accessibility audit, let’s define this term.
What Is It?
Website accessibility means ensuring that websites are accessible and usable for all individuals. This involves ensuring that all users can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with a website, regardless of any disabilities they may have. These disabilities can be auditory, cognitive, physical, neurological, or visual.
People with temporary impairments, such as a broken arm or someone recuperating from surgery, can also benefit from accessibility.
This also covers the following:
- Conditions where a person’s ability to function is limited due to circumstances or surroundings, for example: being in a noisy environment or having a broken arm.
- Individuals are traveling on trains that are in motion.
- Individuals have restricted access to the internet due to various reasons.
Why Is This Important?
Ensuring that all individuals can access the websites we handle should be a top priority for us in SEO, along with the designers and developers we collaborate with.
An accessible site helps all users:
- Move through it.
- Enhance their experience.
- Reach the information they’re looking for.
According to a Forbes article, ensuring that websites are accessible to all users, including those with disabilities, is vital. It enables them to access the same information and services as everyone else, such as news articles, online shopping, online banking, government services, and more. By promoting website accessibility, we can guarantee that everyone has equitable access to online content.
User Experience Is a Priority
More than just focusing on website rankings is required; it’s crucial to prioritize website usability for all users. Doing so will increase user satisfaction while improving brand perception and loyalty.
If websites are not easily accessible, it can become challenging for certain users to complete their work or locate the necessary information. So, sites offering a good user experience prioritize accessibility as they wish to include the top sites in search results. Accessible sites are considered the best as they are straightforward to comprehend and operate.
Accessibility is Now Part of the Legal System
If there’s any salient reason to conduct an accessibility audit for your website, countries are already enacting laws to prevent discrimination even in cyberspace!
The European Accessibility Act, introduced in 2019, applies to products and services like computers, smartphones, and ecommerce platforms within the European Union (EU). It mandates that they must be designed to work with assistive technologies and be presented in a way that is accessible to all users.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) enforces the rights of individuals with disabilities against discrimination. This law also covers website accessibility, meaning that websites with inaccessible features can be considered discriminatory against Title III of the ADA. The ADA was first introduced in 1990 to ensure civil rights for people with disabilities.
The UK Equality Act of 2010 includes provisions for website accessibility aimed at preventing discrimination and promoting equality. Under this law, website owners must take into account the requirements of disabled users and make necessary changes to ensure their needs are met. These adjustments should be reasonable and appropriate.
Before Moving to Part Two
Website accessibility is crucial for ensuring that all users have equal access to online content, regardless of any disabilities they may have. Developers, designers, and SEO professionals must prioritize website accessibility, as it improves user experience and satisfaction, brand perception, and loyalty while adhering to laws already in place.
Stay tuned for part two, where we’ll look at the consequences of not prioritizing website accessibility.
Gain the Digital Advantage with AllAccessible
Our accessibility remediation system is the most comprehensive in the world. It offers non-invasive adjustments, eliminating the need for developers to tackle a lengthy punch list of code changes. Our tool identifies shortcomings and promptly applies real-time adjustments to the client’s experience, providing a seamless user experience. Take our accessibility audit to see how user-friendly your website is!