These days, most web developers and business owners are far more concerned with search engine optimization (SEO), but less with optimizing their websites for disabled users. SEO benefits are pretty straightforward for everyone to see. You get your page to rank higher on the SERPs, more people visit your website, and you make more money. Simple.

The importance of website Accessibility has long been understated. However, with a new wave of socially conscious people and a sharp increase in accessibility-related lawsuits, there has never been a more important time to pay attention to how those with impairments interact with your site.

What is web accessibility?

For those unfamiliar, website accessibility refers to the inclusive practice of removing any barriers that prevent users with disabilities from interacting with or accessing websites on the internet.

A truly accessible website should be available to anyone and everyone, regardless of age, gender, location, or disability. Of course, this is not a difficult concept to grasp, since every public company must operate when it comes to its physical locations. Many laws mandate companies to make accommodations for individuals who cannot access their physical locations by installing things such as wheelchair ramps, elevators, and more.

There is no real reason why websites should be treated any differently. And

The laws governing web accessibility

In the USA, two main laws govern Web Accessibility, these are:

• The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
• Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973

Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) mandates that public accommodations and commercial establishments meet ADA standards. While websites are not specifically mentioned, a judge could rule that they are subject to this regulation. The maximum civil penalty under Title III for a first violation is $75,000, with subsequent violations capped at $150,000. As you can see, for those who don’t take the time to make adequate provisions on their website, things start to get a little pricey.

That being said, if the ADA does not specify what constitutes an accessible website, then who does? Well, that would be the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1). These guidelines are technical standards against which websites are judged in order to determine their accessibility. The WCAG 2.1 is consistently identified and upheld in the courts as having provided an appropriate level of accessibility, as cited by plaintiffs and in rulings. This means that, even though the ADA does not yet specify WCAG as a legal standard, courts have ruled that compliance with WCAG provides reasonable accessibility.

The WCAG 2.1 covers a wide range of recommendations for making online content more accessible. These recommendations can be broken down into the following four categories:

• Perceivable
• Operable
• Understandable
• Robust

If you have a website with failures in any of these four areas, that could mean that you could be opening yourself up to a lawsuit.

So, how can you know if your website is up to spec when it comes to web accessibility guidelines? You can simply use a website accessibility checker to gauge how compliant it is.

Benefits of Web Accessibility

Aside from the penalties mentioned above for failing to comply with the WCAG and ADA, there are a plethora of benefits that you and your website visitors can enjoy if you have a more accessible website, including:

• Reaching a wider audience
• Improving the user experience for all website visitors
• Building positive PR
• The opportunity to make more sales/conversions
• The chance to gain a competitive edge over those who don’t include accessibility features

Final word

As we have touched on, there are some very real and obvious consequences for neglecting website accessibility and failing to make adequate provisions for your disabled visitors. However, aside from the fines and the possibility of having a lawsuit filed against you, ignoring website accessibility also means you will be missing out on a wide variety of benefits.

It’s important to note that disabled users are one of the largest demographics in the world, with roughly 1.3 billion people living with some type of disability. Therefore, making your product or services unavailable to them is both unethical and makes very little business sense. Finally, making these provisions shows that you care. This can largely improve the public perception of your brand.

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