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Website Accessibility
Website accessibility is important for lots of reasons. First you won’t get sued and second your site will rank higher in SEO. Not to mention it is simply the right thing to do. That’s according to Jeff White of Kula Partners. In fact it’s according to us too.
When I spoke to Jeff for episode 30, I wasn’t fully prepared for what we ended up discussing. I’d prepared for a chat about where to put your logo on your site and where your About page should sit. What I got was alt-text and contrast.
“Designing [a website] for accessibility is about creating sites for everyone, and knowing full well that in the US 13% of Americans have a disability… 1 in 5 people coming to your site are potentially going to be at some form of disadvantage.”
In 2018 there were 2258 lawsuits filed in the USA against websites that weren’t accessible. To me that’s a huge number. I’m sure it isn’t malicious. It’s probably down to a lack of education. So what can we do about it?
To start with I hope that this episode will help spread the word. It is obviously easier to put website accessibility into a new website build than retro-fit it into an existing one. With this in mind, you can make sure your agency or designer is aware of it from the start.
SEO
Don’t think this is all about equal opportunities either (even though it is!).
“A site that is designed and built properly for accessibility, succeeds more from an SEO perspective than a site that is not designed that way.”
Good website accessibility is approved by Google so will rank higher. If being available to all isn’t your bag, being number 1 probably is.
Podcast
Inside this episode you will find out:
- Why website accessibility is so important
- The percentage of the US population with a disability
- The risks of having poor website accessibility
- How to make your website accessible to all
- Tools for good website accessibility
