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Web accessibility is controversial for many website owners, developers, content makers, and designers. Everyone knows that accessibility is a need but is confused about whether it is a necessity and how to achieve it? There have been many court rulings and legal arguments with respect to the ADA or Americans with Disabilities Act 1990 compliance. For the government offices and brick-and-mortar stores, all the public accommodation spaces must be made accessible for people with disabilities. This is mandated in the construction codes as well as public utility facilities. There are many confusions when it comes to assuring accessibility of websites and other online utilities. Here, we will try to explore the basics of accessibility and why it is important to ensure accessibility.
AccessiBe – What is web accessibility?
The concept of web accessibility specifies that all the websites and other online utilities should be accessible to people with disabilities, too as visual impairment, hearing deficiencies, motor-neuron diseases, cognitive inabilities, etc. AccessiBe specifies that accessibility also covers the special access needs of old age people and those with temporary disabilities etc.
Why is web accessibility important?
We can point out three major reasons why accessibility is important.
1.Legal compliance – As per the Americans with Disabilities Act and various other laws in different countries across the world, all technological components and web-based services should be made accessible to all. In various lawsuits in the United States, we can see that the Department of Justice has always made rulings to ensure the accessibility of web-based assets. Those who violate it may face penalties or other legal consequences. For the e-com and other business websites, it is mandatory that they should make their websites accessible to all.
2.Search engine visibility – As we know, people do not go to any websites directly. Instead, they simply search for their needed products services online and go to the top-ranked page on the search engines to explore them. So, it is important for business websites to be listed on top of the SERPs (search engine result pages). Google and other major search engines specified that they consider accessibility compliance as one of the major ranking factors for the web listing.
- Leveraging the untapped potential – It is estimated that about 15% of the global population is people with different kinds of disabilities. People with disabilities tend to spend more time on accessible websites, and they prefer to make their purchases through these portals. Conventionally, most online resources are not addressing the special needs of this category of users. So, if you make compliant websites to address their accessibility needs, there is a good chance that you will be able to tap the potential of this unexplored market.
Providers like AccessiBe can professionally support you in achieving the accessibility goals to the optimum. You may first conduct an audit of your website to see how its current compliance level and then take corrective measures to enable accessibility. So, in all possibilities, you can find that web accessibility is a necessity for modern-day websites.
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