Creating a successful business website is not just a matter of aesthetics and search engine optimisation. It is not limited to making a site look attractive to potential customers and Google-friendly. There is one other vital factor most businesses tend to neglect: Web accessibility.
Businesses that seek to build or reach new markets must remember that not everyone has normally functioning visual, audio, and motor capabilities. The number of blind people worldwide is projected to triple in the next four decades.
Also, according to the World Health Organization, there will be more than 900 million people with disabling hearing loss by 2050. More importantly, the number of elderly people is projected to reach 1.6 billion or 17 per cent of the world’s total population in 2050.
These potential website visitors have difficulties seeing, hearing, or moving their hands to interact with a website. With web accessibility features, they can access the web more easily, albeit in non-traditional ways.
What is web accessibility
Web accessibility refers to the practice of making sure that everyone is able to access websites even in the presence of barriers such as situational disabilities and physical handicaps. “To build a truly accessible website, five major aspects must be taken into account: Sight, sound, movement, the possible adverse effects of design choices, and cognitive and intellectual conditions,” says Shir Ekerling, CEO at AI-powered web accessibility solution AccessiBe.
How to enable web accessibility
Visual: The main goal is to allow people with low vision, colour blindness, and other eye defects to know what is shown on the screen. It could be through a text-to-speech facility, the ability to set bigger texts and a high contrast colour scheme, or the addition of a colour filter to make site elements more easily distinguishable to colourblind people.
Auditory: Web accessibility is enabled by adding tooltips on interfaces as well as subtitles or closed captions on videos.
Motor: An option to navigate a website through speech or eye movement may be added or supported. This does not necessarily mean that a business has to develop new software for it.
There is already existing tech similar to this implemented in other platforms like the eye-tracking web browsing navigation in Samsung Galaxy devices. What is important is to make the website compatible with and optimised for these existing tech and other assistive technologies.
Also, websites are expected to have simplified versions that make it easy to find the right buttons or links to click for those who have problems in keeping their focus or figuring out complicated user interfaces.
Regulation check
Several countries have laws that require web accessibility, such as Australia, Japan, US, and UK. Two of the most important laws are Section 508 (US) and the EU Standard EN 301549. They prescribe strategies and methods to ensure that websites allow reasonable access for everyone regardless of disability.
Section 508 refers to the Section 508 Amendment to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 of the United States. It is about eradicating information technology barriers and creating opportunities for people with disabilities. It requires accessibility options for PWDs so they can use or access operating systems, software (including web browsers), web-based intranet and internet information and apps, and videos and other multimedia content.
Can it be automated?
Web accessibility can be attained by religiously following the guidelines prescribed by laws and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
In 1999, the W3C set up the Web Accessibility Initiative to create the WCAG 1.0, which was eventually superseded by version 2.0 in December 2008.
A few years later, WCAG 2.0 was published and it is now an updated set of guidelines on making websites perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.
In addition to WCAG, there are also Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) and User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) involved. In enabling web accessibility, the process entails a combination of analyses and optimisations for the content, the user agents such as media players and web browsers, assistive technology, site development, authoring tools, evaluation tools, and the user experience.
“All of these can’t be learned quickly in one seating – in other words, if you want to achieve web accessibility manually, you need to learn the ropes or hire experts to do it for you. It’s not going to be a cheap and simple undertaking,” says Ekerling, who stresses the impact of automation in making developers’ lives easier.
“Automation makes it possible to achieve web accessibility without having to go through all the meticulous processes. With the help of artificial intelligence, automatic web accessibility solutions help businesses become compliant and their websites fully accessible.”
AI simplifies accessibility for startups and developers
In an interview with the CEO of Energent Media, Ekerling shared the motivation behind their web accessibility service. He pointed out the multitude of disabilities or difficulties that prevent many from accessing the web and how laws have been crafted, fortunately, to support web accessibility.
However, these laws pose legal risks to businesses, that is why AI-powered automated web accessibility presents a convenient solution for developers and startups that have limited time and resources to spend on achieving accessibility.
“Our technological solution uses two artificial intelligence programs, allowing each site owner, as small or as big, to make their site fully accessible at a price that is a tenth of even less of the cost of the manual accessibility project,” Ekerling said.
What this means for startups
Accessibility makes good business sense — there are at least five major advantages: a broader customer base, improved customer experience, brand enhancement, reduced legal risks, and greater innovativeness.
In addition to the bump in customer numbers, web accessibility also contributes to creating a better customer experience. When customers no longer require assistance to navigate your site or online store, place orders, and even lodge complaints, you help create the feeling of being in control and fulfilled among your customers.
Moreover, web accessibility helps reduce potential legal risks and liabilities. As mentioned, some countries or territories have laws that require web accessibility among businesses. There is the possibility of getting sued for alleged discrimination, misleading claims, or faulty procedures. One interesting example of this is the case of a blind man who charged the organisers of the Sydney Olympics because its website did not allow access to vision-challenged people.
Lastly, web accessibility is believed to help drive innovation. As businesses optimize their sites to comply with web accessibility guidelines, they stumble upon opportunities for improving their products or services. The responsive web design principle is an excellent example of innovation brought about by the endeavour to improve web accessibility.
Google achieved various innovations by solving accessibility problems. Google’s Accessibility Engineering Director, Eve Andersson, perfectly sums up accessibility’s role in innovation when she said: “The accessibility problems of today are the mainstream breakthroughs of tomorrow.”
Businesses cannot ignore the need for web accessibility.
The benefits that come with it are compelling, and it may actually be a legal requirement in doing business in specific markets. With the advent of modern technologies, the lack of or difficulties in seeing, hearing, or moving should not become a hindrance in granting everyone access to digital products.
Similarly, the lack of expertise in web accessibility should not be a hindrance in achieving it. There are automatic, AI-enhanced web accessibility solutions to help businesses create better and compliant websites.
Source: e27
