What you need to know about website accessibility
It’s easy to understand why brick and mortar locations need to have inclusive options for handicapped or disabled people. But you may forget about accessibility when it comes to your website. The CDC reports that 61 million adults in the US live with a disability – that’s more than a quarter of the population. If your digital presence isn’t designed for inclusivity, you may be missing out on customers and even at risk of litigation.
It’s The Law
Accessibility is not only the right thing to do – it’s the law. Last year, The Wall Street Journal reported a 64% rise in “U.S. lawsuits alleging that websites, apps, and digital videos were inaccessible to people with disabilities.” And since 2017, there has been a 200% increase in accessibility lawsuits.
Losing Customers
A recent study showed that of the 33 top-grossing eCommerce sites, 94% were found to be incompliant when put up against four core accessibility guidelines (WCAG 2.1 AA). Imagine how much revenue is lost by not reaching that potential 61 million people who live in the US with a disability.
How Can We Fix This?
The top four places to look at when it comes to accessibility compliance on your site are:
- Image Descriptions – particularly missing descriptive labels for visually impaired users.
- Link Titles – if their titles aren’t adequately descriptive, visually impaired users may not understand where they lead, or a screen reader may read out the URL text instead.
- Form Field Labels – when form fields don’t have the correct labels, users may not understand what information needs to be entered.
- Keyboard Navigation – some users with mobility issues may use the keyboard (for instance, the ‘Tab’ key is used to move forward through the webpage), and if you haven’t tested your site for this type of functionality it may not properly move down the page.
By making some of these user experience changes, your site will not only be more inclusive, but also easier for search engines, like Google, to crawl and index – making your site more SEO-friendly.
Lastly, be on the lookout for the updated version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.2), set to drop in June 2022.