Look, I know you’re no stranger to a never-ending to-do list as a small business owner, but sometimes when you are managing everything, you lose track of the finer details of web design and user experience.
Next thing you know, you’re too overwhelmed to ask for advice. Don’t worry, that’s what this article and my expertise are here for!
In less than explain accessible website design and why you need to know all about it to succeed in growing your online business presence.
What is Accessible Website Design?
At its most basic, accessible website design is creating websites that can be used by everyone, regardless of their abilities or disabilities, ensuring all users can access, navigate, and interact with your content effectively.
Let’s add a little more depth to that—accessible design ensures that a website’s features, content, and navigation can be understood and operated by a wide range of users, regardless of their abilities. This often involves making sure text is readable, providing alt text for images, ensuring the site is navigable via keyboard, and offering captions for videos.
And finally, for those subject matter experts among you, accessible website design follows guidelines like WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) to ensure compliance and to avoid potential legal risks.
If you’re just starting to learn about accessible website design, rest assured, you can get a handle on the essentials in no time. Want to dive deeper into this topic? Check out my free weekly newsletter on digital accessibility tips for small business owners.
Why Should You Care About Making Sure Your Website Is Accessible?
I’m all about empowering decision-making, and I can’t make you care about accessible website design, but let me give you some compelling reasons to make it a part of your strategy.
Accessible website design is important because:
- Reason #1: It expands your potential customer base by making your website available to the 1 billion+ people worldwide with disabilities
- Reason #2: It boosts your SEO. Search engines favor websites that are easy to navigate and include accessible elements like alt text for images.
- Reason #3: It helps you avoid costly legal issues. Non-compliance with accessibility standards can lead to lawsuits under laws like the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act).
Important: Don’t think that just because your website looks good that it automatically meets accessibility guidelines. The truth is, even a site that is aesthetically pleasing can be a minefield for someone using a screen reader or navigating without a mouse.
The truth is, accessibility requires intentional design choices and regular review to ensure all users can access your goods, services and information effectively.
Digital Accessibility in Context
How accessibility affects your business is just as important as understanding what it is and why it’s essential.
Let me give you a real-world example:
A client of mine, a bakery owner, found out her ecommerce website wasn’t accessible to visually impaired customers when we did an essential accessibility review. This might be a contributing factor to the website’s higher-than-average bounce rate. The takeaway: if your website isn’t accessible and visitors can’t access your goods and services, people who visit your website might leave and never come back.
We implemented basic accessibility features like adding alt text to images, updating the text with larger fonts, and increasing the contrast between the text and the background of the page.
3 Tips for Basic Website Accessibility
Raise your hand if you still feel lost or think you can’t apply this. Be honest!
No problem. Here are some extra hints and tips to get you on your way:
- Tip #1: Start by adding alt text to every image. This ensures that visitors using screen readers can understand the visual elements of your website.
- Tip #2: Make sure there is adequate contrast between the text and headings and the background color of the page. This ensures that text is easy to read and understand.
- Tip #3: Ensure that all audio and video content has a written transcript available. This helps people who are deaf or hard of hearing, as well as those who prefer to read rather than listen.
Key Takeaways
Let’s wrap this up, shall we? The key takeaways from this post are:
- Accessible website design ensures that everyone, regardless of ability, can use your site.
- It opens up your business to more potential customers, improves SEO, and helps you avoid legal issues.
- Simple, actionable steps like adding alt text and ensuring appropriate text color contrast can make a big difference.
At Level 11 Technology, I make it my mission to help small business owners grow by ensuring their websites are accessible and user-friendly.
If you would like to know more or work with me, drop me a line at maigen@level11technology.com. I love hearing from passionate business owners and I read every email.
Pssst, you can also check out my course Essential Website Accessibility Review. It includes information about 7 Website Basics and the top 11 Accessibility Barriers you can address as a small business owner.
Click here to learn more about the Essential Website Accessibility Review course now.
Oh, and come say hi on LinkedIn!