Why You Need a Website That is Accessible to Everyone

 

When you decide to put up your business website on the digital scene, one of the best ways to make it relevant is to make it accessible. It’s 2020 and improving your web accessibility can bring a positive impact not only to your website and to your users but also to your business. 

Every website owner wants to attract as many visitors as possible. However, some business owners think that once you have a working website out on the web it will easily attract potential clients without having to consider its accessibility. There are many users out there who rely on sites for their needs, and if websites are not made accessible for everyone, it would be a loss in engagement for you and your potential customers. 

With millions of people using the Internet today, the need for accessible technology to enable them to use the web efficiently has been very significant. Given that, websites need to be accessible so that it can be used by anyone even those with disabilities using any device possible.

For web developers and designers, website accessibility is the simple act of making sites and apps available for all. When building websites, their goals should be geared towards creating high-quality websites and tools without being exclusive to their users. An accessible website is designed to have simple navigation that even those with disabilities can use the products and services it offers.

Making websites and web applications accessible to all users increases engagements with possible visitors, users, or customers which can potentially result in financial benefits. The more accessible your website is, along with a good SEO strategy, the more it can attract users to view your profile which can eventually be converted into actual paying consumers. 

Fortunately, making your website accessible isn’t complicated to implement. All you need is an understanding of the underlying issues that prohibits your website from being used by certain users. Once you identify those issues and take necessary actions to fix them, you can definitely make a website that is accessible for all. 

How To Make Your Website Available For Everyone 

When building a website, web accessibility should always be at the back of your mind. That ensures that what you are building is something that everyone can have access to. Here are some ways on how you can make your website available for all users. 

1. Make it Keyboard-friendly. 

To make your website accessible to everyone, it should be made in a way that the user can navigate through your website even without holding a mouse. Many assistive technologies rely on keyboard-based navigation such for those who are incapable of navigating the mouse around the page such as those with disabilities and of the aging population. 

One of the most common keyboard navigation is the tab button which allows users to jump through links, buttons, and forms within the page. To make it easier for your users to go through your website without the mouse, do not mess your navigation buttons by animating them. 

2. Add Alt Text to Images

If in case your images don’t load, the Alt text will replace the images to let your users know what the images are. These alt texts or alt descriptions will describe what the image is all about to give it context. This also helps improve your SEO especially when you include your keywords when possible since it provides more information to crawl for search engines.

3. Enable resizable texts

Make your content readable within the eye of your users. This includes those who aren’t able to read the small-sized text. Users with low vision may prefer to resize page content to make it easier to read. Although browsers are usually responsible for the zooming and enlarging of texts, developers should code in such a way that the text does not interfere with the browser’s default of resizing the content of your page. Aside from enlarging texts, design your content in legible fonts that not only coincide with your overall web design but is also functional for your users. 

4. Avoid autoplay media 

Autoplay is an increasingly common element of many video-based advertisements. This type of digital marketing strategy may have some positive impacts on some websites, but for people with disabilities and other specific users, this can be irritating or a barrier for them not to access the website. This can be a turnoff, for instance, the user is in an environment where it is not allowed to play music publicly. Others also prefer to access the web silently rather than be bombarded by media. 

Closed captions for videos and audios are useful not only for accessibility but also gives control to users whether they would want to see what these materials or not. If you have a podcast on your website, consider having captions so that those who can’t play audio can access the content you are sharing. This also helps your SEO by giving more context to crawl by Google. 

5. Create Content with accessibility in mind

Aside from the technicalities and the design of your page, it is also important to consider accessibility when creating the content itself. What we mean by this is that you pay attention to your content and how you write it. Not only should your content be relevant to your audience, information per se, but you also need to consider the delivery of your content to your audience such as providing important points by sharing unique links that expound the concepts, spelling out acronyms, adding descriptive names and anchor text to make it more informative and accessible. 

As a website owner, making sure that the website is welcoming to as many users as possible should be a priority. In the digital world, any user can be a potential client, thus, making your website accessible is needed if you want to reach more audience. 

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