Why does your business need to be ADA Compliant?
Running a business successfully amidst challenges and barriers in the path and satisfying the very broad customer base is very crucial. You have to adapt to the latest technology changes and laws in your business. Since you are running an online business it is essential to make sure you don’t have any accessibility issues which also reduces the usability of your website. ADA emphasizes that “Places of Public Accommodation” should be accessible to differently-abled people like everyone else. Most of the websites are not designed to fulfill the needs of people with Vision, Cognitive, Mobility, and hearing impairments. A recent study by WebAIM in the world’s top 1 million websites shows about 98% of the websites are not being ADA compliant as per WCAG 2.1 Level AA guidelinesHere are 5 compelling reasons to be an ADA compliant website.
1. Be a socially responsible business owner
In today’s digital world approach is everything, consumers are expecting trustful brands who are socially responsible and satisfying the customer. While being an ADA complaint, you are viewed as a socially responsible business fulfilling the needs of users in various demographics and the words will spread out. By adopting the accessibility in your business you are making a difference in the community and creating a strong bond with them.
2. Avoid lawsuit threats
In 2020 , retail , healthcare and finance are going to be the most targeted platform for filing an ADA lawsuit. Read more about the Trends in ADA lawsuit here. You can avoid this situation by making your website easily accessible to everyone.There are more than 2000 ADA lawsuits filed in the United states during 2019, these numbers give a hint how the website accessibility is considered by the public now than before. Think wise and being proactive in web accessibility makes you to avoid the lawsuits and potential risks with respect to ADA.
Several of the business giants like Amazon,Dominos, Foot Locker, Gucci ,J.Crew and Nike got sued for not being ADA compliant. Do you really want to be in the list?
3. Enhance your brand and Market reach
Being an ADA compliant website, you are exhibiting yourself as a business which cares for the community. The inclusion of diversity in your website will create trustworthiness in your consumer base and make them realise how they are valuable to you. This is a “Win-Win scenario for both” What do you think? Inaccessible websites put you in bad perception among the customer groups. According to the report by “Return on Disability Group” $1 Trillion business has been missed because of the non accessible websites. About 26% of the US population has some form of disability. Many of these people will come to your website and try to purchase. Being an ADA complaint website you can provide hassle free user experience rather than moving to the competitor’s website.
4. Boost your SEO ranking
When you are providing certain elements like proper alt text, title tags, image alt attributes and header tags to fix the accessibility issues, these in turn boost your SEO. Because Google search engine appreciates the best practices when these items are in place and increases your Google ranking. By following the web accessibility standards you are making your content more transparent to the search engines crawlers. Because Google search engine crawlers can’t see or hear acts like a differently abled person who uses a keyboard for accessing the website. Giving a good alt text for your image description and also inserting your keyword inside the alt text will increase your visibility to search engines.We have to pay attention to header tags,meta tagging, alternative text for images, video transcripts which inturn creates more accessible content to the end users.
5. Elevates your website usability
Having an website with excellent perceivable content, smooth navigation glitch free operable and better understandable UI can be achieved by being an ADA compliant which increases the user experience in your website which is beneficial to both normal and differently abled users. Several accessibility fixes improves the website usability for everyone. Providing an accurate alt text for images, appropriate contrast between foreground and background color, simple and easy website navigation, closed captions in audio and video will increase both the disabled and normal people user experience in limiting situations.Accessibility in a website can’t be achieved in a day or two, it needs a proper planning and road map to accomplish.Talk with our accessibility specialists at DCKAP and strategize what needs to be done on your website to transform it into an ADA complaint website and to enhance your business and build a trusted brand in the digital market.
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