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Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Imagine visiting a website only to find you can’t navigate the menu, read the text, or understand the content. It’s frustrating. Not just for the user but also for the business owner who has spent money on a site that isn’t connecting with their audience.
You might not even realise you’ve neglected accessibility…
Website accessibility creates a more seamless experience for everyone, regardless of their ability. It’s about a people-first approach, which is integral to creating helpful content and providing a great user experience.
There are more than 5 million people in Australia with disabilities. So if your website doesn’t accommodate, you’re missing out on reaching a wider group of people.
Living with a disability already comes with enough challenges. I know because I have an ultra-rare connective tissue disorder called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Severe Scoliosis and Epilepsy. With many different types of disabilities and limitations, creating a website that caters to your audience is essential.
You must provide helpful and engaging web copy to reach a broader market and keep the Google Gods happy. And what’s more valuable than content everyone can access and read?
Website accessibility allows everyone to understand, navigate, and engage with your content, features, products and services.
The Disability Discrimination Act mandates that websites be designed and developed for people with disabilities.
Making your site accessible is also an intelligent business strategy.
It enhances user-friendliness across different devices, improves the reading experience, and simplifies navigation. This leads to better results from web forms and call-to-action buttons, boosts SEO, and shows social responsibility.
The most common accessibility failures are:
Learn how to implement web accessibility with these tips.
Every website needs an accessible design and readable content. Ensure your site is fully responsive with mobile and tablet optimisation, touch-friendly navigation, and a logical content structure.
When your web design and content are robust, they’re developed to be compatible with different browsers, devices, screen sizes, and assistive technologies such as screen readers.
Quick Wins:
Digestible content is essential for all website visitors. Replace technical jargon with clear, concise language. Use simple sentences and proper headings to break up large blocks of text.
Meet your audience’s search intent to keep your copy on track. Writing for search intent avoids unnecessary content and filling web copy with fluff.
Website accessibility standards outline the importance of accessibility in e-commerce. Make sure you comply by providing an approachable shopping experience.
Quick Wins:
One of the easiest ways to apply web accessibility is through descriptive text. Alt-txt (alternative text) appears when someone uses a screen reader and cannot view the image. It helps the visually impaired, search engines understand what the image is about, and users when images aren’t loading.
Alt-text and text for links and anchors are important for conveying meaning. Use words that describe what the image or content is about when you click a link or button. All images, links, buttons and pages must have descriptive titles.
For example; instead of ‘Read Now’ for the text on a call-to-action button, use ‘Explore Copywriting Services’. This is more meaningful and gives an accurate overview of what the user will find in the linked content.
Spoken commands provide a natural way to navigate and access information. Voice recognition lets users interact with devices and websites via voice search, screen readers, and other tools.
It’s a convenient tool for busy multitaskers and people with mobility disabilities.
Quick Wins:
Transcripts and captions for video and audio are an easy way to apply website accessibility. Assistive technology relies on AI to read transcriptions out loud, which is helpful for anyone with hearing impairments or people wanting to review insights following a live meeting.
AI-powered captioning is a good accessibility feature to use. As AI tools become more accurate, you can have real-time transcriptions for video, audio, live streams and webinars, which increases engagement with everyone in your audience.
Your business doesn’t need to be compatible with every tool, technology or web accessibility trend. But prioritising website accessibility for the disabled and your audience is a must.
In a world overloaded with digital consumption, why make it any harder to access valuable content?
Make sure you:
Improving website accessibility is everyone’s responsibility. This includes the business owner, web designer, developer, SEO specialist and creative copywriter.
