Why Accessibility Must Be Part of Your Website Requirements

Imagine a brick and mortar store. Now, picture intentionally placing barriers at the entrance, preventing 15-20% of potential customers from even stepping inside. It may seem absurd, but it’s essential for business growth, isn’t it? Unfortunately, many organizations continue to overlook accessibility on their websites. Website accessibility is essential for ethical practices, legal compliance, and maximizing market potential in today’s digital world.

So, what exactly does it mean for a website to be accessible? It means designing your website to be accessible for people with disabilities, allowing them to see, understand, navigate, interact, and contribute easily. This encompasses a wide range of disabilities, including visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, neurological, and learning impairments.

This article emphasizes that website accessibility should be a fundamental requirement in the design and development process, not an afterthought. We’ll discuss the benefits of a friendly digital presence, address common questions, and provide practical steps for everyone to enhance it. Ignoring accessibility not only marginalizes individuals but also jeopardizes the success of your business. Making accessibility a fundamental principle is not only the right choice but also the smartest strategy for sustainable business success.

The Core of the Matter: Demystifying Website Accessibility

Before diving into the ‘why’, let’s clarify the ‘what’. Frequently, businesses feel overwhelmed by the concept of accessibility, viewing it as overly technical or complex. Let’s break it down.

What standards should we follow?

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), created by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), is the most recognized global standard. WCAG provides a comprehensive set of recommendations for making web content more accessible. These guidelines are organized under four core principles (POUR):  

1. Perceivable: Information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive (e.g., providing text alternatives for images, captions for videos).  
2. Operable: User interface components and navigation must be operable (e.g., ensuring keyboard accessibility for all functionality, providing users enough time to read and use content).
3. Understandable: Information and the operation of the user interface must be understandable (e.g., making text readable and understandable, making web pages appear and operate in predictable ways).
4. Robust: Content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies (e.g., ensuring compatibility with screen readers).  

WCAG has three conformance levels: A (minimum), AA (most common for compliance), and AAA (highest level). Aiming for WCAG 2.1 or 2.2 Level AA is the generally accepted best practice for most businesses.

Who benefits from accessibility?

The primary focus is on users with disabilities, such as those using screen readers for visual impairments, needing captions for hearing impairments, relying on keyboard navigation for motor impairments, or preferring clear layouts for cognitive impairments. However, the benefits extend to all users. Accessible design principles often lead to a better experience for all users. Consider using captions in noisy environments, clear layouts on mobile devices, and high-contrast text for bright sunlight viewing.

The Non-Negotiable: 6 Reasons for Accessibility

Integrating accessibility isn’t just about compliance; it’s a strategic imperative with profound business implications. Ignoring it carries significant risks and missed opportunities.

1. Unlocking a Massive, Untapped Market: This is perhaps the most compelling business driver. Globally, the World Health Organization estimates over 1 billion people live with some form of disability. In the United States alone, the CDC reports that approximately 1 in 4 adults has a disability. An inaccessible website excludes a large segment of potential customers with strong purchasing power. Making your website accessible instantly expands your reach and potential revenue streams.
2. Greater Conversion Rates: Accessibility doesn’t just help users with disabilities; it improves the overall functionality of your website. A user-friendly website that works well for everyone will likely lead to higher conversion rates. The Click-Away Pound Survey found that 71% of disabled consumers will leave difficult-to-use websites, resulting in lost revenue for businesses.
3. Avoiding Costly Lawsuits and Penalties: In numerous jurisdictions, website accessibility is not merely a suggestion; it is a legal requirement. In the U.S., the courts are increasingly interpreting the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to include websites as “places of public accommodation.” As a result, there has been a swift increase in accessibility-related lawsuits targeting businesses of all sizes. The costs linked to these lawsuits—including legal expenses, settlements, required remediation, and significant reputational harm—far outweigh the investment necessary to create an accessible website from the beginning. Can your business afford to take that risk?
4. Helping Your Brand Reputation and Trust: In today’s conscious consumer world, demonstrating social responsibility matters. Prioritizing accessibility sends a powerful message that your business values inclusivity and cares about all its customers. This builds significant brand loyalty, trust, and positive public perception. Conversely, being known for having an inaccessible site can lead to negative press and customer backlash.
5. Improve Your SEO and Overall User Experience (UX): Numerous best practices for accessibility align seamlessly with those for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Key components such as well-structured headings (H1, H2, etc.), informative alt text for images, straightforward navigation, and quick load times are vital for both accessibility and search engine indexing. Additionally, an accessible design prioritizes clarity, simplicity, and user-friendliness, greatly enhancing the overall user experience. This improvement not only benefits all users but also results in reduced bounce rates and increased engagement.
6. Future-Proofing Your Digital Investment: Incorporating accessibility into your website from the outset is significantly more cost-effective than attempting to modify an inaccessible site afterward. As technology progresses and awareness increases, accessibility standards will likely become more established and, possibly, more stringent. By designing with accessibility in mind, you ensure your website is functional, compliant, and effective; proactively mitigating future costs and challenges.

Making Accessibility Happen: Integrating It Into Your Workflow

Understanding the ‘why’ is crucial, but the ‘how’ is where action takes place. Integrating accessibility shouldn’t be a final checklist item; it must be woven into the fabric of your website development lifecycle.

1. Mandate It from Day One: Accessibility requirements must be included in your initial project scope, Request for Proposals (RFPs), and design briefs. Treat it with the same importance as security or performance requirements. Don’t let it be an optional add-on.
2. Educate and Equip Your Team: Ensure everyone involved – designers, developers, content creators, project managers – understands the basics of WCAG principles and their role in implementing them. Provide training and resources.
3. Choose Accessible Technologies: Select content management systems (CMS), themes, plugins, and third-party tools that have strong accessibility track records and compliance statements.
4. Design and Develop with WCAG AA in Mind: Design: Focus on clear layouts, logical navigation, sufficient color contrast between text and background, readable fonts, and appropriately sized interactive elements. Development: Use semantic HTML (correct use of headings, lists, landmarks), ensure full keyboard navigability, provide text alternatives (alt text) for all non-text content, implement ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) attributes where necessary for complex widgets, and ensure forms are accessible.
5. Content is Crucial: Train content creators to write clear and simple language, use descriptive link text (avoid “click here”), provide captions and transcripts for videos, and structure content logically with headings.
6. Test, Test, and Test Again: Use a combination of automated accessibility checking tools (like WAVE or Lighthouse) and manual testing. Automated tools can catch many issues, but they can’t replicate the human experience. Manual testing should include keyboard-only navigation checks and testing with screen readers (like NVDA, JAWS, or VoiceOver). If possible, involve users with disabilities in your testing process – their feedback is invaluable.
7. Ongoing Maintenance and Audits: Accessibility is not a one-time project. Regularly audit your website, especially after updates or adding new content/features, to ensure continued compliance and usability.

Conclusion

Accessibility is not just a checkbox in website development; it’s essential for your business’s success. By prioritizing accessibility, you expand your reach, protect your business from legal risks, improve user experience, and boost SEO. An inclusive web is essential, and businesses that adopt it will excel and left the competition behind.

By embedding accessibility requirements into the core of your website strategy, you move beyond mere compliance. By welcoming every potential customer, you enhance your brand’s reputation, improve usability, and tap into significant market opportunities that competitors may overlook. The question isn’t if you should prioritize website accessibility, but rather, can you afford not to? Make accessibility a non-negotiable requirement today, and build a digital presence that truly serves everyone.