5 Bad Pieces of Advice for People Looking to Boost the Accessibility of Their Website
If you’re interested in boosting your website’s accessibility for blind and low-vision users, then you’ve probably been researching the best resources for sound advice and best practices for supercharging your strategy. First, know that since you’ve made it to AllyADA, you’re in good hands! Our accessibility professionals operate at the forefront of the tech, regulatory, and business landscape to provide guidance you can trust. Second, know that there are websites out there trying to sell you products and services that exploit your interest in accessibility without offering you the results you’re looking for.
That’s why we’re reviewing the TOP 5 PIECES OF BAD ADVICE that other sites are offering. Don’t worry—we’ll also tell you how to do it right!
Why does website accessibility matter?
Because a missed consumer is money lost!
Whether you run a business, an organization, or a government agency, being an active, engaged, and successful entity in the modern era means prioritizing a fully functional website. This is especially true for commercial entities interested in optimizing their presence in the bustling e-commerce space. Recent financial statistics from Forbes Advisor puts the anticipated global e-commerce market for 2024 at just over 6 trillion dollars! Wanting to capture, maintain, and grow your portion of that market is not only an acceptable goal, it is the only goal.
One way to do that is to ensure that your website is fully accessible to the maximum consumer base. For those who are new to the concept of ADA-accessibility compliance across the webscape, the key thing to understand in this context is that approximately 12% of the consumer base in the United States is blind or has low vision. This means that websites failing to meet regulatory compliance standards for fully accessible usability end up losing out on a huge segment of the consumer base right off the bat!
Avoid these top five pieces of bad advice!
1. Bad Advice: Use Automated Diagnostics Instead of Manual Testing.
Why waste time with manual testing when you can trust a machine to understand human needs? Sure, it misses half the issues, but hey, it's faster and almost free!
Try this instead: Favor human review over algorithms every single time!
Computer software certainly has its place, and, as a tech company, we embrace the role of software in easing analysis across many metrics. But our expertise in this area means that we also understand the limitations of solely computer-based review.
Most website auditing platforms simply run a program that purports to identify accessibility issues. However, these programs are limited in their ability to accurately and adequately identify all of a website's accessibility barriers. Manual review (i.e., review by actual blind and low-vision users) is the only way to know how functional, accessible, and useable your site is to the community (and the market!) you’re trying to reach.
2. Bad Advice: Buy a Widget That Pretends to Fix Your Website.
Widgets are magical! Just install one and watch as it pretends to solve all your accessibility problems. Who cares if it doesn't actually work? At least it looks like you're trying!
Try this instead: Fix accessibility problems, don’t just plug holes!
Just as widgets for any other aspect of mobile or online use are sometimes fun, cute, interesting, or handy, they are generally not comprehensive problem-solvers. They offer some limited functionality that solves a partial aspect of a larger problem. Widgets for blind and low-vision users seem like an easy fix because they try to plug problems one at a time. But widgets are clunky and frequently the source of new problems of their own making. Fixing problems on a foundational level means never having to rely on plugging holes again.
3. Bad Advice: Don't Allow People with Disabilities to Test Your Site
Why bother getting feedback from actual blind or low-visibility users? After all, they might tell you things you don't want to hear. It’s better to keep your head in the sand and assume everything is fine!
Try this instead: Use manual testing for unrivaled, comprehensive results!
As a business owner, web developer, or decision-maker, you want the absolute best for your consumer-facing online marketplace. With the list of outsized benefits, it’s clear that achieving ADA-compliance is among the types of easy decisions that drive net positive results every single time. And irrefutably, the best way to ensure comprehensive results and optimal benefits is to enlist the input of your target market- blind and low-vision users!
At AllyADA, our diverse team of accessibility professionals includes direct, manual feedback from the audience you’re trying to reach. We match real-world problems with real-time solutions that really work. No gimmicks, only gains!
4. Bad Advice: Don't Take Care of Any Updates.
Once your site is "accessible," you're done forever, right? Forget about updates! Accessibility standards never change, and your website won't either. Perfect logic.
Try this instead: Use a trusted audit provider for regular updates to stay current!
We all know by now that the internet is a living thing. Rather than a fixed, concrete block, it’s a space alive with an evolutionary power that continuously propels it forward. In fact, change is the hallmark of a thriving webscape. This is true for the internet generally and true for every single business individually. Your users, target audience, and platform evolve. ADA and WCAG compliance standards evolve. Online capabilities and engagement evolve.
Keeping up with accessibility compliance is not only advisable, but it’s also necessary! Without regular updates, you may actually be even more vulnerable to the regulatory fines and lawsuits you were trying to avoid in the first place. Plus, blind and low-vision users are a loyal consumer base. They’ll return to your accessible site over and over again. Harnessing the purchasing power of this huge consumer block means getting and staying accessible.
5. Bad Advice: Don't Claim Tax Credits for Implementing Accessibility.
Why take advantage of financial benefits for doing the right thing? Just leave that money on the table. It's not like you need it for more important things, like those fancy widgets!
Try this instead: Make your business better and get lucrative tax credits for doing it!
Yep - making the smart business decision to invest in becoming ADA-compliant really is a win-win-win scenario. In one bold move, your business captures a previously untapped market share, your SEO rankings get a boost from Google, and your business gets a generous tax break! Who knew that investing in an accessible online business platform could help put so much money in your bank account in so many ways? We did! And now you do, too.
An easy, affordable, comprehensive fix is possible!
The good news is that any business can take easy and immediate steps toward improving access to this vibrant and loyal segment of the consumer base just by conducting a thorough and comprehensive audit of its website accessibility failures. Think your website can’t possibly be among the non-compliant ones? Think again —only 2% of websites are fully accessible!
But if you want to become ADA compliant to grow your reach, boost your SEO, make more money, meet global standards, get tax breaks, and do something good, don’t follow bad advice!
Spend your time and money wisely with the professionals at AllyADA instead!