No matter what sector you may be in, digital accessibility brings a magnitude of benefits to organisations. Not only do these advancements enhance the service for users themselves, but businesses can reap their own rewards. This blog explores in what ways.
The need for digital accessibility testing
Globally, there are 1.3 billion people who have some form of disability. This equates to a staggering 17% of the population. This wide demographic is frequently shut out of accessing crucial online services, resources, information, and social interaction due to the inaccessibility of online platforms.
The way to remove these digital barriers is through website accessibility testing. Testing is best to take place throughout the initial planning stages of a website’s design and development. However, if that ship has already sailed and your site is live, there’s no better way of evaluating a platform’s accessibility than through audit testing.
The only way to get a true picture of a platform’s usability is by performing:
- Automated software scans to discover basic accessibility errors
- Technical reviews by expert developers, who assess the site’s codebase
- Manual user testing, with the use of assistive technology devices and software
This three-pronged approach can assess not only where websites may be failing to meet web standards but also gives a unique insight into the ease of use to gain whether a site is perceivable, operable, usable, and robust for all users. If you go through a reputable agency like our own, then after the audit you’ll receive a comprehensive report and live demonstrations of how the discovered errors impact upon your users. In turn, building a roadmap of changes to enable you to become inclusive.
Now that we’ve discussed why performing accessibility audit testing is important to enable equal access to the web, below we’ll delve into how this results in a return on investment (ROI) for organisations as well.
Enhancing the user experience increases a more diverse clientele
No one wants to enter a website and be confronted with a sea of frustrations. Accessibility audit testing not only ensures that people will be able to access and navigate a site but also have a pleasant experience while doing so. This is achieved by also examining the content itself to ensure it is user-friendly to both see and understand for all individual needs. Once this is achieved, you can tap into a more diverse audience and gain a greater reach.
The spending power of disabled people and their families is valued at around £249 billion a year, and 75% have reported to have walked away from an inaccessible business. So, designing accessible goods and services really does have vast competitive advantages for organisations. A user-friendly website is one that people want to return to, and word of mouth will soon spread about your commitment to accessibility.
Digital accessibility aids with search engine optimisation
Everyone wants their website to rank highly in search results. Digital accessibility actually plays a part in helping this to be the case. Due to the way crawler programs assess a site’s content, such as through keywords, and stripping back content so that it is both meaningful and descriptive, helps the user and software to scan web pages.
This is achieved through implementing accessibility best practices, such as:
- Implementing clear heading structures
- Descriptive link text
- Adding alt text on imagery
- Providing transcripts with media
- Improving readability levels
- Using semantic HTML
- Giving access to a site map
Leading to increased metrics and heightened SEO exposure results in:
- Gained website engagement
- More time from visitors spent on the site
- Greater organic traffic
- Higher conversion rates
- Lower bounce rates
- Increased credibility
Being inclusive can reduce operating expenditure
Building accessibility into your digital space can help in future-proofing your platform, along with reducing costs in further ways:
- Avoid just slapping an accessibility toolbar on your website. Procuring accessible web development can save you money. Although the additional outlay may seem like more, over time, you avoid the monthly expenditure from the latter. Toolbars are never enough to make a website accessible; in fact, they are actually pointless to many users that they are actually aimed towards. If you get audited down the line or stricter laws come into play, you’d end up having to pay to get your website’s accessibility retrofitted anyway, so begin with inclusive web development.
- Websites that have been built with accessible code will result in the need for less development work down the line.
- By streamlining your taxonomy and driving users through accessible navigation, you can reduce the need for online customer support. See how we achieved this with Ashfield District Council.
Complying with web standards can save you from lawsuits
Organisations have an ethical responsibility to provide equal access to services and information.
Some of the world’s biggest brands have faced hefty fines due to their platforms being inaccessible, along with a damaged reputation to boot.
In the UK, if a company fails to provide reasonable adjustments to its website content, then it fails to meet the Equality Act of 2010. Whilst public sector organisations have legal obligations to comply with government standards. As a result, this could mean that your organisation may face a costly lawsuit, and rightly so. If you want to avoid this from happening to you, be sure to place accessibility at the forefront.
See an ROI due to accessibility testing
If you want to prioritise digital accessibility and see a return on investment for your organisation, get in touch with our accessibility experts. They can guide you through all of the above points. Whether for a brand new build or to bring yours in line with web standards, we can help you achieve your business goals.
