Why Your Company’s Website Needs an Accessibility Audit

[Approximate Reading Time : 4 mins]

We live in a diverse world: 61 million, or 26% of adults in the American population, live and work while managing a physical disability. Including these individuals is not only a good idea for your business, it is essential when striving toward a more fair and equitable world. Getting an accessibility audit for your website reveals your site’s weaknesses and gaps where disabled users — or potential customers — are not able to properly use your site. Read on to learn more about accessibility, why you should consider an accessibility audit, and how we can help you make your business stand out from the competition in this area.

What Is Accessibility?

Simply put, accessibility measures how well a website, a physical structure, or even something as abstract as an in-person college class meets the needs of people with disabilities. If you are trying to make your website and additional media more disability-friendly, then you are trying to raise its accessibility and thereby enable those with disabilities to live more normal lives.

Types of Accessibility Audits and What Is Required for Your Website

Your potential customers (or current customers) may have trouble using your website due to visual, auditory, cognitive, or physical disabilities. These disabilities may include labels such as dyslexia, cognitive learning disability, speech disability, or autism. It’s a good idea to perform an accessibility audit on a regular basis to make sure that your site is accessible to all and also to ensure compliance with ADA guidelines.

Those with visual disabilities or those who are print disabled may have the most trouble with websites in general, but it’s important to know that there is more than one category of people who need assistive technology or websites that are built with their use in mind. Your audit may focus on:

• Subtitles and closed captions
• Transcription and alternative text descriptions (such as those that can be changed to Braille)
• Audio syncing
• Generating MathML, which helps make math equations less ambiguous by adding clarity to verbal descriptions of pictures
• Complete remediation to provide an accessible website for all customers

Let Us Help

We can simply perform a risk audit to tell you where your site’s weak points are, or we can make recommendations and enact changes. We may remediate your documents, collaterals, or the entire site. Whether your website needs a few modifications or a complete overhaul, we are able to provide you with high-quality, reliable, and respectful service. Get in touch with us at Amnet today to get started.

Sources
1. https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/infographic-disability-impacts-all.html#:~:text=61%20million%20adults%20in%20the,is%20highest%20in%20the%20South.
2. https://myblindspot.org/mbs-accessibility-defined/#:~:text=Accessibility%20can%20be%20viewed%20as,the%20use%20of%20assistive%20technology.
3. https://torquemag.io/2019/09/conduct-accessibility-audit/
3. 4. https://www.ada.gov/2010ADAstandards_index.htm