Make your website friendly for those with disabilities

A website that’s accessible to those with disabilities will get more customers

Ever since the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed in 1990, those with disabilities have been able to go places they were previously unable to, opening up many opportunities. While the main focus on ADA has been on physical locations, it’s also important to have websites that are easily accessible to those with disabilities.

Your company’s website needs to have support for those with disabilities. Websites are fundamental to your online public relations plans and presence, so you need to make them as accessible as possible to those with disabilities, such as those with vision difficulties. A website that those with disabilities can browse and view with no issues increases the number of potential customers for your company.

A good way to make your site accessible is with an add-on that gives those with disabilities tools to help them see your content better. These tools include letting users increase the font size, change colors, disable animations, and more, overcoming issues that people with disabilities may face on a website. With these add-ons, your company can become friendly to those with disabilities.

At Axia, we use the add-ons accessiBe and UserWay to help readers with disabilities view the content on our sites with no problems.

You should also have an accessibility statement that can be accessed on your website. The statement shows you support those with disabilities.

If you’re building a new website or plan on making a new one, make sure that your site has the needs of those with disabilities in mind. Avoid pitfalls such as small fonts and flashing lights so that those with disabilities can enjoy your site to its fullest.

Making your website friendly to those with disabilities can also save your website from a lawsuit. Just as there are people who sue businesses for not complying with the ADA despite having no intentions to go into the businesses’ building, there are people who sue companies for having websites that are not friendly to those with disabilities even though they have no intention of using the site’s services. By making your website accessible to those with disabilities, you can keep your company safe from any drive-by lawsuits.

Website accessibility is becoming an important topic in the world of websites and web design. It’s good for business, and it’s also morally the right thing to do and can prevent lawsuits. A website that includes the needs of those with disabilities will reach more people than websites that don’t.

Clients love Jacob’s speed. Jacob is an inbound marketing-certified webmaster. He earned an integrated communications degree from Florida State College at Jacksonville. Jacob joined Axia PR as an intern in August 2015 and earned his way into a critical role at our PR agency.