Digital Accessibility Does Good to Business than Just Meeting the Legal Requirements
The issue of website accessibility is garnering all attention for reasons of legal compliance or more precisely with ADA, but this is only one aspect why accessibility is so much important for websites. Admitting that ADA website compliance 2018 tops the agenda of organizations and website owners, there are many more important reasons for addressing the issue that often escapes attention. Websites that pursue the issue of compliance stand to gain a lot in terms of business outcomes besides deriving the satisfaction of being compliant with the laws. When sites work towards meeting the legal stipulations of ADA it also implies that knowingly or unknowingly they are following the WCGA standards that enhance website performance by providing better user experience.
When examining the issue of ADA compliance from a commercial perspective, it should not be difficult to understand that the measures taken in making websites ADA compliant offer a lot of tangible and intangible benefits. Moreover, non-compliance or inadequate response to accessibility issues is risky as you will understand on reading this article. Let us begin by looking at the benefits first.
Stimulate innovation
When stressing on accessibility to websites, it opens new avenues for users as they get more and better options for interacting with websites and applications. Interestingly, although the issue of accessibility has its focus on the disabled, people without disabilities also benefit from it. To improve accessibility, the focus is not only on-screen experiences but also experiences that go beyond it. This results in the interaction that is more contextual, natural and above all more humane. When trying to improve accessibility, it removes the architectural. Social and digital barriers that come in the way of innovation thereby encouraging to think out of the box.
Brand enhancement
When businesses demonstrate a firm commitment towards accessibility, it shows how genuine is its sense of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). When businesses understand the diverse needs of stakeholders and act accordingly by staying committed to inclusive marketing and employment practices, benefits would start pouring in. By carrying out CSR programs in a well-thought manner, the brand image and reputation of business get a boost, sales increase, customer loyalty goes up, and there is an improvement in workforce diversity.
Enhanced market reach
Market expansion as a result of wider outreach increases revenue as the drive for improved accessibility brings into your fold the disabled population that had so far remained unreachable. It is thus imperative that in the process of meeting the WCGA or ADA requirements, the business gains keep on happening that no one can ignore. Considering that 15% of the world population has a disability, improved accessibility can push up sales and bring in more revenue as this population gets easy access to your website.
Minimize legal risks
As more and more laws are framed to strengthen the rights of disabled people to make it easier for them to participate in online digital information sharing and engage in online business activities, the inability to improve accessibility is fraught with penal consequences.
The sooner websites can offer equal opportunities for all, the higher are the gains.
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