Web Accessibility and How it Could Benefit your Business
What is accessibility?
Web accessibility is the adaptation of a Web platform to a person with a visual, auditory, motor or cognitive disability so that they can perceive, understand and interact with Web content. The W3C, responsible for Web standardization, describes international accessibility standards in the WCAG 2.0 (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) good practice guide.
As for content availability, it is the content of your site that is simply available online. The difference is great!
Visual disability
Of course, there are the blind, who will access the Web through voice synthesis or Braille displays, but there are also other types of limitations, such as color blindness, partial blindness and visual problems associated with aging. This video explains well how an adapted site can help people with a visual impairment.
Hearing disability
Since information on the Web is primarily visual, the hearing impaired are often the main ones left behind. When producing audio content, it is essential to think about sound contrasts or provide subtitles.
Physical disability
We think of people with complete paralysis, but also of those who suffer from tremors or motor problems. It is, therefore, necessary to provide an alternative means of carrying out tasks for actions requiring a great deal of precision. There are several innovations in this field (I invite you to watch this video to understand how these inventions can change a life).
Cognitive disability
Finally, memory, concentration, and intellectual disabilities are other limitations for which a different form of accessibility must be provided. Simplifying the interface, avoiding distracting elements and reducing text density are all ways of making content accessible to this type of Internet user.
The importance of accessibility
Few suppliers and companies will bother to make a site accessible… by ignorance, lack of interest or only by omission. If public buildings are to be available to people with mobility impairments, websites should also meet this principle. A government site must serve its entire population as equitably as possible.
What are the advantages for your company?
Accessibility can greatly improve the quality of life for many people with disabilities. It can enable them to enjoy greater autonomy or a more active role in the community, regardless of their physical limitations.
As the population ages, a growing proportion of society is finding accessibility useful. Leaving accessibility behind means leaving a continually growing audience behind. On the other hand, most of the improvements suggested by accessibility will benefit other users and your overall marketing. Using a tablet like the ones used for drones tablets can be a good thing and can definitely help your day to day operations! There are more and more drones you can control with iphone these days and the same applies to a whole lot of other electronic devices in 2018!
Accessibility at every stage of the project
Accessibility must be taken into account in all phases of a project: from writing, the definition of terms used and keywords, functional and graphic design, and especially integration.
As Denis Boudreau, former president of Web Accessibility said: “If the responsibility of people with disabilities is to have the means to access the Web, it is the responsibility of content producers to make it accessible.