In my last post I detailed all the ways to develop and check for accessibility in the design of your website. However, sometimes you need to justify to management why you would take the trouble; below is some ammunition for whenever this occurs:
• More traffic to your website: Allowing more users access to your websites results in more traffic, page impressions and conversions to your website.
• Growing population of disable users: Baby boomers are starting to age, and with this brings simple disabilities such as low vision, mobility problems and others. These ‘Silver Surfers’ are one of the biggest growing markets on the web today.
• Lower Bandwidth: Accessible websites are usually smaller in page weight. This means cheaper bandwidth charges in the long run, which can make a huge difference on large websites.
• Faster Loading Pages: Smaller HTML sizes results in a quicker experience for most users, especially those with slower connection speeds.
• Positive PR: Adopting a socially responsible attitude towards web development and complying with web best practices (and the law in many countries) can make your company look good.
• Avoid Legal Issues: Many instances of people being denied access to websites due to inaccessibility have been settle in and out of court across Britain, Australia and North America.
• Search Engine Optimisation: A search engine spider reads your website exactly the same way a screen reader. An accessible website is a search engine friendly website, thus improving your chances of placing higher in the result pages for Google, MSN and Yahoo.
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Yes you are absolutely right about the concerns of web accessibility. The web offers so many functions and opportunities to people but still many things need to be kept in mind while developing a website. However, on the other side, if a web site is not created with web accessibility in mind, it may exclude a segment of the population that stands to gain the most from the internet. Now a day’s organizations and designers have become aware to implement web accessibility principles, so as it is ensured that their content will be accessed by a broader population with fewer complications.
Very right – all too often websites are designed with just the look and feel of the website; accessibility, navigation and other aspects of the design and layout are ignored.
Great article, as an experienced career writer with online marketing and SEO expertises, l know that accessibility is mandatory for online sales, the average online visitor spends 10 seconds on a website, before deciding to live or potentially place an order, accessibility in critical across diverse and so many industries for example bookstores, travel food chain, online good stores etc.. … web site design, accessibility, usability and marketing does make the different between securing a sale or loosing a customer that may never come back…..