Website Accessibility: Why It Matters And How To Get An Accessible Website
filed under: Website Design, Website Optimization
What Is Website Accessibility?
In 2020, our friend and colleague Emily Robertson gave a helpful analogy in a presentation on accessibility for the New England Museum Association. She had us imagine a building with a set of stairs to the main entrance. If there isn’t a ramp to that entrance, a person who uses a wheelchair won’t be able to get into the building at all. Similarly, a website that isn’t accessible means that people using assistive technology devices can’t “get in the front door” and won’t be able to access the website fully.
Accessibility Nuts & Bolts
The Web Accessibility Initiative of WC3 establishes internationally-recognized guidelines for accessibility in several different areas. The set of guidelines that covers website content is what we’ll be focusing on here - these guidelines are referred to as WCAG, or the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
WCAG covers a wide variety of items including things like font sizing, color contrast, closed captioning on videos, and the simplicity of a website’s navigation so that screen readers can easily understand the site.
There are three levels of WCAG compliance: A, AA and AAA. Each level builds on the last and AA tends to be the level that many web developers aim for when building an accessible website. AA achieves quite a lot in terms of making a website accessible and compliance is achievable for many websites. AAA guidelines, by contrast, are much stricter and achieving compliance is more difficult (if not impossible) for many websites.
Why Is Accessibility Important?
Equity
Having a website that doesn't meet accessibility guidelines is an equity issue since it makes it impossible for website users with disabilities to fully access your site. If your organization is prioritizing diversity and inclusion, website accessibility is an important consideration.
Your Bottom Line
It also makes good business sense. According to the CDC, 61 million Americans live with a disability. Not addressing accessibility issues on your website means you’re locking out 61 million potential customers who could be benefitting from your products and services.
In late 2021, a Forbes article predicted retailers would lose $828 million in Christmas sales because of website accessibility issues.
Liability
There have also been some major lawsuits over the past several years that have ruled in favor of parties who brought cases against companies with inaccessible websites. So liability issues are another consideration.
Where Do Things Currently Stand With Accessibility?
WebAIM Million, a project of Web Accessibility In Mind, conducts an annual review of the top one million website homepages and in February 2021, they found some pretty stark results. They found over 51 million accessibility errors (averaging 51 errors per webpage) in their review and the errors they identified would likely keep the sites from conforming with WCAG A & AA standards. Translation: users with disabilities are likely to face significant challenges in using these sites.
I’m Convinced - What Should I Do Now?
As with most complex topics, it depends. If you have a website that you’re currently happy with, next steps for you will look different than someone looking to build a new site right away. So the first step is knowing where you are.
Scenario 1: I’m happy with my current website and would like to continue to use it.
Find out where you stand - get an accessibility audit.
Getting an accessibility audit is a great starting place. There are many expert firms (including Tunnel 7!) that review websites for WCAG compliance and can let you know what is needed to meet accessibility guidelines. Audit reports will generally give you an overview of how your website is doing in meeting WCAG guidelines, and will provide you with a list of action items that need to be completed in order to meet WCAG standards.
Depending on the audit findings, making accessibility fixes to your current site may make sense. For example, if all that’s needed is to add an alt text field to your images so that screen readers can identify the image, that may be something that you can easily fix yourself, or with the help of a developer.
If, however, the audit returns a long list of items that need to be fixed, it may not be cost effective to do that work, and you may want to go with Option 2 instead: building an accessible website from scratch.
Need Help Getting Accessible? Get a Tunnel 7 Accessibility Audit.
Scenario 2: I’m already planning to build a new site and need it to meet WCAG guidelines.
If you’re already due for a redesign, or the accessibility audit finds a long list of compliance issues, starting from scratch and building a website with accessibility in mind can be a smart and cost-effective approach.
Given that website accessibility applies to foundational items like color palette, website navigation and other basics of website architecture, keeping accessibility guidelines in mind from project launch will serve you well. If you’re going to hire a web designer, it’s best to hire a firm that already has experience building accessible websites.
When considering accessibility, most websites have room for improvement.
Want support figuring out where to put your attention? Hire Tunnel 7 to Build Your Accessible Website.