Why Web Accessibility is Important
Besides the fact that having a website that everyone can access - regardless of handicap - is a generally decent thing to do, there are other more practical business-oriented reasons that may sway you to take web accessibility seriously:
Expand your customer base: Most people think of web accessibility primarily benefitting users with visual impairments – a rather small group in the grand scheme of things. But in reality many other users benefit as well including those with hearing impairments, physical disabilities, cognitive or neurological disabilities, and age-related conditions.
So while your competitors decide not to bother with web accessibility, you’ve just expanded your potential customer base to include all of the above.
Build customer loyalty: It probably goes without saying that physically impaired users will appreciate and return to a website that they can access easily, especially if the website is transaction-based, such as an e-commerce site. Even the non-impaired may appreciate the conveniences that come with an accessible website.
Avoid legal action: You may have heard that Target was sued by the National Federation of the Blind, and in a class action settlement agreed to pay out $6 million and make their website more accessible. Enough said.
Appear to be an ethical and socially responsible website owner: We hope this one would just come naturally to people, but alas – even if you just want the appearance of being a decent website owner, you can look that way by having an accessible website.
Get better visibility in the search engines: Accessible websites, those that conform to the guidelines established the W3C, have an easier time being indexed by the search engines, due to their clean code and compliance with web standards.
Growing your customer base, avoiding costly lawsuits, ranking better in the search engines – seriously, what’s not to love?
