Accessibility Is Our National Duty
Having recently celebrated Veteran’s Day in the United States, it is not lost on us that the connection between serving our country in the military and navigating life with disabilities is very real. Joining one of the branches of our armed forces is one of the most honorable and noble decisions a young person can make.
But, by its very nature, choosing military service means willingly placing your belief in the principle and the spirit of our nation ahead of your desire to preserve your own mental and physical well-being at all costs. It is an utterly selfless act that has meant the ultimate sacrifice for many and the transition to living with a disability for many others. In fact, as of August 2023, the U.S. Department of Labor, Veterans’ Employment and Training Service, identified 5.27 million veterans living with a service-connected disability in the civilian population.
Navigating access across all areas of modern life is everything to these veterans, from being able to more easily function in the brick-and-mortar world to being able to more seamlessly engage with the digital world. It is our moral imperative as human beings and our duty as a nation to embrace accessibility on behalf of veterans.
Why Digital Accessibility Matters
According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, of the nearly 5.5 million disabled veterans in the civilian population with service-connected disabilities, approximately 130,000 are blind, and over 1 million “have low vision that causes a loss of ability to perform necessary daily activities.” And this number represents only a portion of the estimated 12% of the U.S. population that is living with low-to-no vision.
The varied and critical needs of blind and low-vision veterans are represented through organizations like the Disabled American Veterans and the Blind Veterans Association, both of which seek to raise socio-political awareness of the issues facing blind and low-vision vets and encourage the implementation of tangible real-world change. These efforts are rightfully understood as a key part of the promise that our nation makes to those who serve- that we will do everything in our power to respond to your mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual needs upon your return and throughout your life.
The Americans with Disabilities Act
In both the brick-and-mortar world and the online world, the rights of blind and low-vision veterans are protected through the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which regulates and enforces accessibility across all sectors of modern life. In the three-dimensional world where we live, shop, eat, and engage, this includes things like accessible sidewalks with curb ramps and buildings designed to accommodate the free movement of people using assistive devices like wheelchairs, white canes, guide dogs, etc.
In the digital world, where we shop, engage, and seek information, this includes things like ensuring seamless website navigation from the homepage through checkout or providing textual image descriptions for every picture or graphic, which can be picked up by screen readers and conveyed to blind and low-vision users.
How is the ADA Enforced?
Notably, when ADA regulations were first introduced (pre-internet), it took regulatory fines and lawsuits to bring businesses on board in a significant way. Eventually, accessibility requirements became so common that they informed design and construction projects from the outset so that accessibility was accomplished from the beginning. Regulatory fines, lawsuits, and retrofitted accessibility improvements moved from being the norm to being the exception. Businesses learned that having more accessible storefronts and facilities was actually better for ALL of their customers and better for business all around.
This same story is now playing out in the digital world. Currently, regulatory fines and lawsuits have been the main drivers of digital accessibility improvements. Ultimately, websites will incorporate accessibility best practices from the outset, as well. For now, though, online businesses are faced with keeping their fingers crossed to ward off fines and lawsuits or retrofitting accessibility improvements through the use of digital auditing services like AllyADA. And now, we’re in the age where businesses that operate online and opt to lead at the forefront of accessibility improvements are learning what their brick-and-mortar counterparts learned thirty years ago- having more accessible websites is actually better for ALL of your customers and better for business all around.
How AllyADA is Making a Difference for Veterans and Businesses
While broad enhanced accessibility is our nation’s collective goal, at AllyADA, we focus specifically on the area of digital accessibility. Our business model is born of practical life experience, an enthusiasm for business enterprise, and industry best practices. Our goal is threefold: (1) to ensure that the best aspects of our modern technological world are available to everyone- including our blind and low-vision veterans and others, (2) to give the broad consumer base an optimal online user experience overall, and (3) to enable businesses to reap the multitude of benefits that naturally flow from a more accessible website. By leaning into this trifecta, we’ve come up with a game-changing brand that benefits everyone.
We Audit Websites for Accessibility Barriers
Beyond our goals and objectives, it helps to understand exactly what it is that we do for businesses and for blind and low-vision veterans and others. In the most practical terms, we audit websites to identify digital accessibility barriers. To do this in the most comprehensive way possible, our CPACC-certified accessibility specialists utilize the best available screening technology to seek and find accessibility barriers. But, most importantly, we also utilize high-level manual reviews performed by blind and low-vision users.
Our manual reviews capture a depth of analysis that simply cannot be achieved by using purely algorithm-based review protocols. This is because software is limited in its ability to mimic human experience. However, having a blind or low-vision accessibility expert review each aspect of a website means that no barrier goes undetected. A real-time, comprehensive, human-centered analysis is generated. By valuing the actual experiences and insights of blind and low-vision users, every consumer and every business benefits.
A digital audit not onlye identifies barriers, but also provides a clear and concise roadmap for fixing them. Once barriers are identified, we provide a detailed report, hold conversations, answer questions, and develop a plan for fixing the problems. Then, either we make the upgrades, or your design team does. The result is a website with usability and functionality that is smooth and seamless from start to finish. Which, again, benefits all users.
How Does Accessibility Benefit Blind and Low-Vision Veterans?
Looking at how digital accessibility benefits blind and low-vision veterans and others is pretty simple and straightforward. Accessibility barriers make it difficult to impossible for blind and low-vision users to navigate ADA-non-compliant websites, understand and assess products for comparison and purchase, remain on the website, finalize purchases, and experience the full-impact of visual elements like images and videos. By identifying and fixing barriers, blind and low-vision veterans and others gain access to the website’s full functionality and access to the complete compliment of products and services offered. Equity of experience and purchase power is life-changing and empowering.
How Does Accessiblity Benefit Businesses?
Being in favor of making the online world a more hospitable place for blind and low-vision veterans and others is easy. We have yet to meet a business owner or consumer who doesn’t see the value in that mission or recognize the necessity of it. But business owners have expressed the concern that every decision they make needs to be in their own best interests as a business, not just in the best interests of society at large. Given the challenges and costs associated with operating a business, this is a completely valid and reasonable concern. The good news is, accessibility is good for business!
By identifying and fixing common accessibility barriers, an online business can reap a whole host of benefits that catapult it to the front of the leader board. Let’s take a look:
• Stronger SEO performance and rankings: Though search result algorithms remain somewhat elusive, search engines like Google have built accessibility into their formulas. This means that ADA-compliant websites receive an automatic boost in the rankings. A boost in SEO is a boost in business. Period.
• Hefty tax breaks: To incentivize ADA compliance, the federal government has established significant tax breaks for accessibility investments on the digital front. Essentially, a business is entitled to recover 50% of its expenditures toward digital accessibility, up to a maximum expenditure of $10,250.00 in a given year. And this tax credit is available year after year, with no limit.
• No wasted money on lawsuits: Make no mistake that lawyers and lawfirms are coming in hot for the sea of websites that are currently non-compliant. Once a lawsuit is filed, costs to the business include hiring a legal team, making payouts, and still having to pay for accessibility upgrades to bring the site into compliance. This is wasted money.
• No wasted money on regulatory fines: When the federal government issues a fine against a business for ADA-non-compliance, no one wins. Again, this is wasted money.
• Grow brand loyalty and reach: Don’t underestimate the power of an accessible website. Better SEO and usability means reaching more people. The more people, the more sales of goods and services. It’s basic math. More sales means more reviews, more word of mouth marketing and referrals, and more brand loyalty.
• Improve usability for everyone: The types of digital upgrades that lead to ADA compliance are net positive improvements for every single user. Softening the metaphorical edges of your websites user interface means a smoother, better experience for everyone. For instance, while blind and low-vision users need textual descriptions of an image (called alt text), all users rely on these descriptions in certain contexts. For instance, if an image doesn’t load while scrolling a website, having access to textual descriptions allows the message to be conveyed to the person who needs to receive it in that moment, whether sighted or not.
• Upgrade easily as regulations evolve: Digital ADA-compliance is an ever-evolving thing. And, as the world looks toward a global digital accessibility standard, new ideas and innovations may take root. By working with a diligent and well-informed auditing company, your business will be persistently poised to make simple adjustments along the way, rather than face a whallop of costs and requirements all at once.
• Be a business leader: By being at the forefront of digital accessibility improvements, you capture a huge segment of the consumer base (nearly 12%) early. This demonstration of a keen business sense, a customer-forward approach, and big-picture perspective is a key driver of brand loyalty.
• Embrace inclusivity and equity: Yep, as an added bonus, you get to know that you did the right thing in the world. Not all business decisions let you reap rewards and feel good about your impact on the world. Digital accessibility is an exceptional business choice.
Let Us Help You Help Veterans
Schedule a consultation and learn how we can easily and affordably audit your digital ADA-compliance. We’ll do the work; you bask in the glow of success. And, blind and low-vision veterans and others are treated with the respect they deserve in the world of online commerce.
For information on digital accessibility under the ADA and how you can bring your website into ADA compliance, reach out to one of our CPACC-certified accessibility specialists today. We take the business of accessibility seriously because it’s seriously good for business. Let’s talk!