Or that Dominos isfightingthe Supreme Court over a website accessibility lawsuit filed by a blind customer?
Website accessibility is big business or, to be more specific, thelackof it is …
It’s free, every week, in your inbox.
If you thought website accessibility only mattered for governments and big business, think again.
Accessibility matters toanyonewho provides a product or service public, private or volunteer.
It particularly matters for small business.
And paradoxically, small businesses are the ones most likely to get it wrong.
Title III of that statute says places of public accommodation have to provide reasonable accessibility for people with disabilities.
That means you have a legal responsibility now to get this right.
And you have a moral obligation, as well.
The world runs on the Internet now.
What happens when the only source you have for something is a website and youre blind?
Or you have motor issues and cant use a mouse.
Is the page laid out so you’re free to easily tab through?
Its not only a moral and legal obligation, its an economic one, as well.
At last count there were57 million peoplein the United States living with a disability.
Thats a huge potential market you could be missing out on.
Ask Vint Cerf, inventor of TCP/IP, often called aFather of the Internetalongside other early Web pioneers.
Hes hearing-impaired and his wife is deaf, and the Internet opened doors for them theyd never had before.
Email in particular allowed them access to easy text communication for the first time.
But hessounding a warningabout accessibility in the current age of the Web.
We need to build in these things from the beginning.
Hes been encouraged by recent developments in voice assistance, but feels theres still work to do.
For example, take Kurt Eichenwald, an epileptic journalist who was attacked remotely via people sending himepilepsy-inducing GIFs.
Videos can often do this unintentionally by showing blinking or rapidly flashing images.
Thats why you should use an opt-in for all of your video and animated GIF content.
check that nothing can play until the user decides to trigger it.
Be aware of what your videos can do to people who are vulnerable.
2) Create transcripts and captions for video
Video content is particularly problematic for accessibility.
For deaf users in particular, even subtitled video often isnt enough.
Theres a difference between subtitles and captions.
Sounds like a car horn or a ringing phone can still be heard and processed.
They make it possible for them to experience the video the way its meant to be experienced.
Transcripts are useful for this, also.
They even help with search engine optimization.
And if youre not tagging your photos, graphics and buttons, youre cutting them off at the knees.
If the elements on your page lack tags, youre leaving your visually-impaired users completely devoid of information.
They cant hear what youre trying to tell them.
You might as well have given them a blank page.
Your visually-impaired users will thank you.
It actually invited people to test.
The results were illuminating …
When it came to filling out forms, the program was substandard.
Even people who suffer from dyslexia can benefit from autocomplete.
But how easy is it to get to?
Ironically, the accessibility page is only accessible from running a search on Google.
Its more like five to 15 percent.
From the very beginning, the code and infrastructure have to be built with WCAG 2.1 standards in mind.
Clarity in design matters a lot for disabled users.
It also needs to be clearly visible and high-contrast.
Coherent site design helps people with disabilities find what they need.
Make it easy for them to turn on accessibility features.
Its not hard to make your hyperlinks bigger so they encompass more text.
This allows people with motor problems to hit the link more easily.
Its easy for them to lose track of where they are in the page.
verify your site is adaptive, even at larger sizes.
Its a simple change, but it can make a huge difference.
Proper accessibility takes time and money you might not want to spend …
But its absolutely worth it.
You could be leaving money on the table.
If you want to become ADA and WCAG 2.1 compliant, theres hope.
Theyll help you get to WCAG 2.1 compliance, opening up new markets and helping you avoid costly lawsuits.
Dont miss out on a market that you could dominate.
Serve your disabled internet users the same as your regular users make your website accessible.
