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The Importance of Web Accessibility in Development

Author: Taylor Janszen
by Taylor Janszen
Posted: Feb 08, 2024
web accessibility

Many businesses are starting to pay attention to web accessibility now. Before this present era, nobody cared about web accessibility. Businesses with more web accessibility features are more profitable. They get more engagements in comparison to those that lack these elements. It is ideal to create a well-designed and structured website for your business. You may want to go the extra mile to enhance the accessibility of your web designs. In other to do this, look up, "website development company near me." This brings you one step closer to the right web design and development companies.

Unveiling accessibility in today’s marketplace

Before you get the right web design, you need to consider web accessibility. This means that you should consider a web design that caters to everyone. Despite their disabilities, they should find information on your online pages. This could be specific blogs, product information, checkout pages, or payment methods. You will have to design your website or products to be available to everyone. Web accessibility is using digital designs to make your website friendly to everyone. Studies show that there may be more disabled online customers from Columbus. This was not the case before now. Many website design companies in Columbus are enhancing their web accessibility services. It helps online businesses access an under-served segment in the marketplace. This usually leads to more sales as people with disabilities buy products more often.

Designing for accessibility: Disability types to consider

There are about 70 million people in the US alone that have a disability. In the world, about 1.2 billion people live with one form of disability or the other. This is a significant audience to ignore. These people also buy products from the internet. Without web accessibility elements, these people struggle to buy your products. A website developer Columbus Ohio company can enhance your web accessibility. It means that they will design a website for your business that everyone can access. Web accessibility for online businesses have three main categories of disabilities:

  1. Situation or conditional disability: This is a case whereby the web user is unable to properly use a website. This problem could be either a slow internet connection or a faulty device.
  2. Temporary disability: This is a case where a user has a short-term mental or physical disability. This affects their abilities to browse effectively and get what they want.
  3. Permanent disability: This is a case where the user is disabled. An example of this case is being deaf, blind, speech-impaired, and so on.

Web accessibility: Making the internet accessible to everyone

The internet is for everybody – but not everyone has equal access to online resources. Many online users are being cut off from enjoying performing some activities online. A recent study was conducted on the best one million websites. The result came back that about 98% of these websites were affected. They all had accessibility problems on their home pages. Web accessibility helps online businesses to consider disabled users when designing their websites. Their contents, products, and services should equally be available for people with disabilities. The WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) have a set of web design rules. This will help to enhance web accessibility. This is a rule for content writers, website developers, designers, and other online creators – it helps them to enhance accessibility. If you follow these WCAG rules, people with disabilities can easily access your website.

Web accessibility for small businesses: 4 reasons your website should be accessible

You look up, "web development agency near me" to get a website developer. They come in and create a website for you. Next, you make sure that they have designed your website according to the rules of WCAG. This can help enhance your web accessibility features. Here are some of the benefits of web accessibility for online businesses:

1. Expand your online audience:

Web accessibility doesn't just apply to the blind and deaf only. There are over 1 billion people in the world with various disabilities. These people have different ways of using the internet. It is common for some to use a keyboard and a mouse. Others may choose to navigate online using only a keyboard. People who have eye problems can rely on tools such as screen magnifiers and readers. Also, others that have problems with walking, may choose to a certain range of tools. These include use eye trackers, trackballs, or head pointers to control their browsing devices. If your online business has enhanced accessibility, all of these users will be able to engage with your website.

2. Enhances better web experience for all users:

Web accessibility is aligned with the best practices of website design. Everybody who uses your website benefits if your content can easily be understood, perceived, and used. As an online business, there are some principal elements of web accessibility that you will want to consider. These include:

    • Using closed captions with videos to cater to those who have hearing problems.
    • Using the right color contrast ratios enhances reading for visually impaired people.
    • Simplifying authentication processes to help users who have memory or moving problems.
    • Writing website content to be clear and concise to help people with reading/learning problems.

3. Are very cheap to maintain

Online businesses can benefit a lot if their websites have various accessibility elements. This is because programmers develop these websites using cleaner codes. This means fewer errors, faster load times, and enhanced search engine ranking. These types of websites support simple extra features. You can also redesign the website or refresh its contents without much fuss. Upgrading and maintaining this type of website is usually cheap. It is important to note that investing in website accessibility can be costly at first. However, over time, this investment produces excellent returns and can be immediate.

4. Helps online businesses comply with the law

In many countries, online businesses need to enhance their web accessibility features. For example, in the USA and Canada, some laws require websites to include features to enhance accessibility. The European Union also has a similar law in place to ensure that online businesses are easily accessible to everyone. Businesses that invest in web accessibility will not only be expanding their audience. They will also be complying with web accessibility laws. In recent times, the laws have started to take effect across various online marketplaces. In the USA, a lot of states expect online businesses to meet certain website accessibility features.

Making your website accessible: A very simple process

Many online businesses Still do not know how to make their websites accessible. This is because it can be difficult to understand the set of rules from the WCAG. This is where a web development Columbus company comes in. There are many professional web design companies in Columbus. They are great with helping your online business with certain accessibility features. As professionals, they can support your website with permanent accessibility features. It is also important to know that the entire process of making your website accessible is cost-effective. It is always important for businesses to implement these features. They offer pathways to both short- and long-term benefits.

About the Author

I am writer, I always want to share valuable information with the audience. Right now I am working with Janszen Media.

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Author: Taylor Janszen

Taylor Janszen

Member since: Feb 05, 2024
Published articles: 2

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